The Water-fowl of the Pacific Coast 553 



THE SAND-HILL CRANE 



The same man who is crazy to shoot a swan 

 will probably curl his nose in high disdain at 

 your intimation that the sand-hill crane is a 

 game-bird of the first class. He confounds him 

 with the herons, bitterns, egrets, and other fish 

 eaters, and does not know that he is almost 

 entirely graminivorous like the goose, although, 

 in a different way, he too loves the water. When 

 on good grass or grain the sand-hill crane is 

 almost the equal in flavor of the turkey and 

 under almost any circumstances is better than a 

 poor duck of any kind. As a mark that will try 

 your utmost care to get even within sure rifle-shot 

 of, he is surpassed only by his great white cousin, 

 the whooping-crane, and the wild turkey. The 

 whooping-crane is not found on this coast or any- 

 where west of the Rocky Mountains, as far as I 

 can learn. Every kind of water-fowl from the 

 great basin between the Rocky Mountains and 

 the Sierra Nevada winters on the Colorado River, 

 especially at its mouth. But even there I could 

 not find the whooping-crane, though the common 

 sand-hill was in great numbers. And men who 

 have run boats on the lower river for thirty years 

 have never seen the big white sand-hill, or whoop- 

 ing, crane. 



But the common sand-hill of bluish gray or 



