SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 487 



ings, apparently through the action of the digestive juices. 

 The stomach was full, which prevented the eggs from passing 

 down, but the first egg may have been attacked by the digest- 

 ive juices in the gullet or oesophagus. 



Probably the only safe method by which this long-billed 

 bird could secure the entire egg contents was that of swallow- 

 ing the eggs whole. Mr. Perry showed me the neck and head 

 of this Crane, and the three eggs taken therefrom. He said 

 that Rails were very numerous in the marsh, and all marsh 

 animals fed upon them. 



The vegetable food of the Sandhill Crane includes corn, 

 potatoes and sweet potatoes. The destruction of these farm 

 crops is one indirect cause for the disappearance of the bird 

 from inhabited regions. It falls before the rifle of the farmer 

 and hunter, and is shot from blinds as it flies over the prairies. 

 It is killed at all seasons, and, like the Whooping Crane, it 

 probably is doomed to extinction. 



Note. — The Little Brown Crane {Grus canadensis) is a western 

 species which probably never was more than casual here. The only 

 record of its occurrence in New England is recorded by Brewster in The 

 Auk. It was taken on the 8 th or 9th of October by Mr. Benjamin Bur- 

 lingame at Natick Hill, R. I., and was preserved for an educational col- 

 lection in Natick. Mr. Brewster says, in recording it: "As far as I am 

 aware this species has never previously been reported from any part of 

 New England, although the Whooping and Sandhill Cranes are supposed 

 to have occurred rather numerously in the early colonial days." This 

 instance merely illustrates how large birds with great powers of flight 

 sometimes wander far from their normal range. ^ 



WILD TURKEY (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris). 



Length. — 48 inches; wing, 21; tail, 9. 



Adult Male. — Body plumage generally brilliant, metallic bronze, with 

 gold, green and red reflections; each feather tipped with a black band; 

 wings black and bronze green; quills white-barred; rump black, with 

 dark purple, metallic gloss; upper tail coverts chestnut, with metallic 

 red reflections; tail chestnut, black-barred, tipped with a deep buff 

 band and a subterminal black band; head and neck naked, red and 

 variegated; a bunch of coarse bristles suspended from center of breast. 



1 Auk, 1890, Vol. VII, p. 89. 



