THE WHOOPING CRANE. 189 



closed wings, and outstretched feet they alight, running along for a few steps 

 to break the force of their descent. 



Reader, see the majestic bird shake its feathers, and again arrange them in 

 order. Proud of its beautiful form, and prouder still of its power of flight, 

 it stalks over the withering grasses with all the majesty of a gallant chief. 

 With long and measured steps he moves along, his head erect, his eye glis- 

 tening with delight. His great journey is accomplished, and being well 

 acquainted with a country which has often been visited by him, he at once 

 commences his winter avocations. 



The Whooping Crane reaches the Western Country about the middle of 

 October, or the beginning of November, in flocks of twenty or thirty indi- 

 viduals, sometimes of twice or thrice that number; the young by themselves, 

 but closely followed by their parents. They spread from Illinois over 

 Kentucky, and all the intermediate States, until they reach the Carolinas on 

 the southern coast, the Floridas, Louisiana, and the countries bordering on 

 Mexico, in all of which they spend the winter, seldom returning northward 

 until about the middle of April, or towards the beginning of May. They 

 are seen on the edges of large ponds supplied with rank herbage, on fields 

 or savannahs, now in swampy woods, and again on extensive marshes. The 

 interior of the country, and the neighbourhood of the sea shores, suit them 

 equally well, so long as the temperature is sufficiently high. In the Middle 

 States, it is very seldom indeed that they are seen; and to the eastward of 

 these countries they are unknown; for all their migrations are performed far 

 inland, and thus they leave and return to the northern retreats where, it is 

 said, they breed and spend the summer. While migrating they appear to 

 travel both by night and by day, and I have frequently heard them at the 

 former, and seen them at the latter time, as they were proceeding toward 

 their destination. Whether the weather be calm or tempestuous, it makes 

 no difference to them, their power of flight being such as to render them 

 regardless of the winds. Nay, I have observed them urging their way during 

 very heavy gales, shifting from high to low in the air with remarkable dex- 

 terity. The members of a flock sometimes arrange themselves in the form 

 of an acute-angled triangle; sometimes they move in a long line; again they 

 mingle together without order, or form an extended front; but in whatever 

 manner they advance, each bird sounds his loud note in succession, and on 

 all occasions of alarm these birds manifest the same habit. 



I had, in 1810, the gratification of taking Alexander Wilson to some 

 ponds within a few miles of Louisville, and of shewing him many birds of 

 this species, of which he had not previously seen any other than stuffed 

 specimens. I told him that the white birds were the adults, and that the 

 grey ones were the young. Wilson, in his article on the Whooping Crane, 



Vol. V. 26 



