232 THE Birps Axout Us. 
Northwest,” gives amusing instances of mistakes of 
this kind. 
The Brown or Sandhill Crane is a little smaller 
bird, and slate-gray varying to brown, instead of pure 
white, like the preceding. Except in Florida, not 
found east of the Mississippi River. Mr. Dall found 
these cranes breeding in Alaska on the Yukon River, 
the eggs “laid in a small depression on the sandy 
beach, without any attempt at a nest.” 
The following from Wilson, while purporting to 
be an account of the whooping-crane, applies also to 
the sandhill crane, which he appears to have con- 
sidered the young of the former. This account is 
of interest now more, particularly, because it is de- 
scriptive of a phase of bird-life on the Atlantic coast 
of New Jersey now forever passed away. 
“This is the tallest and most stately species of all the feathered 
tribes of the United States; the watchful inhabitant of extensive salt- 
marshes, desolate swamps, and open morasses in the neighborhood 
of the sea. Its migrations are regular and of the most extensive 
kind, reaching from the shores and inundated tracts of South America 
to the arctic circle. In these immense periodical journeys they pass 
at such a prodigious height in the air as to be seldom observed. 
They have, however, their resting stages on the route to and from 
their usual breeding-places, the regions of the north. A few some- 
times make their appearance in the marshes of Cape May in Decem- 
ber, particularly on and near Egg Island, where they are known by 
the name of Storks. The younger birds are easily distinguished from 
the rest by the brownness of their plumage. Some linger in these 
marshes the whole winter, setting out north about the time the ice 
breaks up. During their stay they wander along the marsh and 
muddy flats of the sea-shore in search of marine worms, sailing occa- 
sionally from place to place, with a low and heavy flight, a little above 
the surface, and have at such times a very formidable appearance. 
At times they utter a loud, clear, and piercing cry, which may be 
