SANDEILL CRANE 281 



Coues (1874, p. 534) records eggs from Fort Crook, in northeastern 

 Shasta County. In the San Joaquin Valley cranes have been observed 

 during the summer months, and there is a chance that they may breed 

 there, or at least have once done so. Goldman (1908?), p. 202) saw 

 three at Tulare Lake, July 8, 1907. L. Tevis (Grinnell, MS) reports 

 their presence in the neighborhood of Buttonwillow, Kern County, all 

 through the summer season ; a pair watched on April 30, 1912, behaved 

 as if nesting. 



In winter the Sandhills breeding in California may or may not 

 move south out of the state. In either case it is probable that some 

 birds come into California from the Pacific Coast district to the north- 

 ward, as far as the limit of the summer range in southern British 

 Columbia. Again we have to point to the confusion which has pre- 

 vailed in separating the Sandhill and Little Brown cranes. Tyler 

 (19136, p. 22) says that the birds he has examined in the Fresno dis- 

 trict have all been Sandhill Cranes, and he believes that the majority 

 of the cranes visiting that locality are Sandhills. Four specimens 

 purchased in a San Francisco market, January 20, 1898, and thought 

 to have been shot in the vicinity of Los Baiios, Merced County, are 

 in the Mailliard collection (J. Mailliard, 1911, p. 50). There is a 

 skin of the Sandhill Crane in the United States National Museum 

 (no. 11927) taken by Lt. J. C. Ives, probably in 1857 or 1858, on the 

 Colorado River, though whether or not in California is not clearly 

 stated. The measurements of this bird are: wing 21.75 inches; tarsus 

 10.60; culmen 5.40. 



In flight the Sandhill Crane flaps along heavily, as though the 

 wings were hardly able to lift the large body. Except when launched 

 for a long-distance journey these birds fly close to the ground. In 

 migration they fly very high, and in lines somewhat like those of ducks 

 and geese. The legs and neck are held stretched out to full extent. 



On the big unfenced prairies and the treeless expanse of marsh where 

 there is nothing to hide a lurking foe, you find the Sandhill Cranes, sometimes 

 in small migrating flocks but usually in pairs, stalking about in dignified but 

 ever watchful manner, stretching up to nearly a man's height to survey the 

 surrounding country, then stooping to probe the earth for worms, catch a 

 distant grasshopper, or spear a luckless frog or minnow. Let an enemy appear 

 in the distance, and the long necks are up, and one of the most powerful, far- 

 reaching of bird-notes rings out with its alarm challenge, a prolonged bugle- 

 like cry, deeper and heavier than the loon's, and often heard a mile away. 

 With a quick run the splendid birds mount on the wing, the bugle-notes 

 resounding rhythmically with only the space of an inspiration between as they 

 fly; and though their calls mellow in the distance, the cranes vanish as specks 

 in the air before the sound of their magnificent voices is entirely lost (V. 

 Bailey, in Bailey, 1902, p. 79). 



