46o THE LITTIvE BROWN CRANE. 



No. 206. 



LITTLE BROWN CRANE. 



A. O. U. No. 205. Grus canadensis (Linn.). 



Description. — Adult: Plumage slaty gray to brownish, more or less washed, 

 especially on back and scapulars, with ochraceous or rusty, — this rusty sometimes 

 abruptly confined to scattered single feathers; quills, alula and primary coverts 

 blackish; top of head to below eye bare, dull red, skin minutely warty and with 

 some short, bristly, black hairs ; feet and legs black. Immature : Head entirely 

 feathered ; plumage brown rather than plumbeous, extensively washed with rusty. 

 Length about 35.00 (889.); wing 18.50 (469.9); tail 7.50 (190.5); bill 3.60 

 (91.4); depth at base .yj (19.6); tarsus 7.50 (190.5); middle toe and claw 

 3-25 (82.6). 



Recognition Marks. — Eagle size; slaty gray or brownish color; crane pro- 

 portions of bill, neck and tarsus; smaller than the next species. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Ohio. Like that of next species. Bggs, 

 smaller. Av. size 3.66 x 2.28 (93. x 57.9). 



General Range. — Arctic and subarctic America, breeding from the Fur Coun- 

 tries and Alaska to the Arctic Coast, migrating south in winter into ihe western 

 United States. 



Range in Ohio. — One record of its occurrence in the state. (Cf. "Nests and 

 Eggs of North America," Oliver Davie, p. 121.) 



THIS species and the next reverse the usual order of sequence in size, 

 it being a case where the northern form is conspicuously smaller than- the 

 southern. The migrations of the Little Brown Crane are normally confined 

 to the western part of the United States. Mr. Oliver Davie states that he 

 mounted a specimen of this bird which was taken from a flock of seven near 

 Springfield, Ohio, in the spring of 1884. 



According to Chapman, there are but twO' other instances of its occur- 

 rence east of the Mississippi, — Rhode Island and South Carolina. 



Its appearance within our limits is therefore to be accounted strictly 

 accidental. 



