CRANES 121 



strange birds to a flock already well settled. The new- 

 comers are certain to be subjected to a more or less harrow- 

 ing inspection by the original inmates, who consider them 

 as nothing more than intruders. The strangers will be 

 persistently driven from pillar to post for some days, and 

 will be fortunate indeed if they escape without some injury. 

 The safest way to establish a crane family is to place all 

 the intended members in the enclosure at the same time; 

 then none can use the prestige of previous occupancy as an 

 excuse for tyranny. Brought together in this abrupt man- 

 ner, the birds will soon learn to tolerate each other. 



The order Gruiformes includes, besides the true cranes, 

 six groups of remarkable birds, such as the sun-bittern, the 

 kagu and the seriema, which have been assigned to this 

 order in lieu of a better place. Their structures are con- 

 fusing, and their relationships obscure. The birds with 

 which we are to deal here are divided into nineteen species, 

 which form the suborder Grues, and are cosmopolitan, with 

 the exception that none is found in South America. Asia 

 is particularly fortunate in being the home of seven species. 

 Some of these birds are fairly easy to obtain alive; but most 

 of them are far from common in captivity, and a few are 

 seen rarely, if ever. 



The Sandhill Crane (G. mexicana) still is fairly com- 

 mon on the plains of western North America, where there 

 is little cover to shelter skulking enemies. This is the most 

 numerous of our cranes and therefore the best known. It 

 is rather small, as compared with most of its relatives, its 

 length being about forty-six inches; its color is a uniform 

 slaty gray, with the bare skin of the crown reddish. In 

 captivity this crane becomes delightfully tame, and is very 

 hardy and long-lived. This species nested in the New York 

 Zoological Park in 1904 and 1905, but the eggs proved in- 

 fertile on both occasions. 



