CRANES 



(Family Gruidce) 



Sandhill Crane 



(Grus mexicana) 



Called also: BROWN CRANE 



length — 40 to 48 inches. 



Male and Female — Entire plumage leaden gray, more brownish on 

 the back and wings. Upper half of head has dull reddish, 

 warty skin covered with short, black, hairy feathers. Long, 

 acute bill. Very long, stilt-like, dark legs, the tarsus alone 

 being 10 inches long. Tail coverts plumed. Immature birds 

 have heads feathered and more rusty brown in their plumage. 



Range — Most abundant in the interior, on the Pacific slope, and the 

 southwest; nests from the Gulf states northward through 

 the Mississippi valley to Manitoba; winters in the Gulf states 

 and Mexico. 



Season — Summer resident only north of Florida, Louisiana, and 

 Texas. 



Many people confuse this bird with the great blue heron, that 

 is more often called by the crane's name than its own; but beyond 

 a certain resemblance of long legs and necks, these two birds 

 have little or nothing in common. 



Immediately on their arrival in the spring the cranes go 

 through clownish performances, as if they were trying to be awk- 

 ward for the sake of being ridiculous ; far from their real inten- 

 tion, however, for it is by these antics that mates are wooed and 

 won. They bow and leap "high in the air," says Colonel Goss, 

 "hopping, skipping and circling about with drooping wings and 

 croaking whoop, an almost indescribable dance and din in which 

 the females (an exception to the rule) join, all working themselves 

 up into a fever of excitement equaled only by an Indian war dance, 

 and like the same, it stops only when the last one is exhausted : " 



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