The Sandhill Cranes 



suspicion of approach. The two eggs, reckoned among the handsomest by 

 amateurs, are protectively colored to the point of practical invisibility. 

 They are of a warm brownish buff, tilleul buff, as to ground-color, spotted 

 and blotched with verona brown. This is the authentic crane type — faith- 

 fully reproduced, for example, in the very different-appearing but struc- 

 turally related Limpkin, or Crying-bird (Aramus gigantens). 



The intimate history of the young of this splendid species will prob- 

 ably go unwritten, for we have chosen to make enemies of the Sandhill 

 Cranes. If, indeed, there are any breeding birds of this species left in Cali- 

 fornia, there are probably not above half a dozen pairs all told. The 

 authors of "The Game Birds of California" knew of no positive record 

 since that of Dr. Henshaw, who, on July 29, 1878, took a pair of partly 

 grown young at Fort Bidwell, in Modoc County, although they record, on 

 the authority of Mr. L. Tevis, the occurrence on April 30, 1912, of a pair 

 at Buttonwillow, which seemed to be nesting. I saw a pair of adult Sand- 

 hills on the shores of Goose Lake, June 20, 1912; and another pair un- 

 questionably breeding at Eagleville, in the Surprise Valley, on the 30th 

 of June; and again on 

 the 12th of July of that 

 same year. 



Sandhill Cranes are 

 omnivorous feeders, their 

 long stiletto-like beaks 

 being equally suited to 

 spearing grasshoppers, 

 frogs, lizards, crickets 

 and other insects, and 

 to probing the earth in 

 search of sprouting grain 

 or succulent bulbs, such 

 as they love. The birds 

 are capable, on occasion, 

 of rising to such sportive 

 fare as mice and young 

 gophers. Indeed, Nel- 

 son tells us that the 

 natives at the mouth of the Yukon raise the young of the related form, 

 G. c. canadensis, and keep them about camp because of their usefulness in 

 keeping down vermin. I should be rather chary of keeping such a pet my- 

 self, because a crane, like a bittern, if angered or brought to bay, will 

 strike for the eye, and he does not need to strike twice. 











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Taken in Oregon 



SANDY, Jr.. SHAKES A LEG 



Photo by William L. Finley 



'529 



