WATER BIRDS. 151 
of two years on Neebish Island in the St. Mary’s River. Mr. L. Whitney 
Watkins believes that they still nest in parts of Jackson and Washtenaw 
counties, and Mr. Edward Arnold of Battle Creek has known of their nesting 
recently in several places in the southern part of the state. W. P. Melville 
states that he saw three adults and took a young one in the down on the 
plains south of Newberry (Upper Peninsula), Luce county, in 1903; Mr. 
Newell A. Eddy of Bay City reports seeing eleven on the marshes near 
Seney, Schoolcraft county, September 25, 1895, and was informed by 
residents that they occurred there every fall. Single specimens are taken 
here and there through the state occasionally now, but it seems certain 
that its numbers are decreasing steadily, and before many years in all 
probability it will desert the state altogether, seeking nesting places farther 
north and west where it can find greater security. 
Fig. 40. Head of Sandhill Crane. 
From photograph of mounted specimen. 
The nesting date given above by Dr. Atkins would seem to be unusually 
late in view of the fact that Trombley records two fresh eggs taken in Mon- 
roe county, April 23, 1885, and L. J. Cole took two newly hatched young on 
Chandler’s Marsh, Ingham county in May, 1898. Several writers state that 
the bird is an early nester, and we should infer that ordinarily the eggs 
were laid the last of April or first of May. Covert, however, records a nest 
found near Ann Arbor June 2, 1870 (Forest and Stream, VII, 10, 147), 
and we find among the notes of the late Percy Selous a record of a nest 
and two eggs at Burgess Lake, near Greenville, Montcalm county, June 30, 
1894. 
