1880. ] The Sand-Hill Crane. — 773 
THE SAND-HILL CRANE. 
BY HON. J. D. CATON. 
OME observations which I have made of the habits of the 
sand-hill crane (Grus americana) in domestication in my 
acclimatation grounds, may be interesting, as I am not aware that 
this interesting bird has been much studied under such con- 
ditions. 
Seven years ago Father Terry, the Catholic priest in Ottowa, 
Illinois, presented me with two sand-hill cranes, then three years 
old. They had run about his house and yards, and in the street 
of the city near by. They manifested a strong appreciation of 
the kindness he had shown to them, and whenever he returned 
home, whether in the day or the night time, they manifested their 
Satisfaction by their loud calls and uncouth gestures. If in the 
Street they were pursued by a dog, they took wing and flew home 
with the ease and facility of the wild bird, and yet they showed 
no disposition to leave and revert to the wild state, even at the 
migratory season of the species. 
In my grounds they necessarily received less personal atten- 
tion and gradually became less attached to man, but could often 
be induced to dance and play with me in their awkward but very 
amusing way. They are inclined to be imitative. Forty years 
ago, when they were very abundant in this country, a farmer 
whom I well knew, assured me that he had one in domestication 
which when a year old would fly on to the hay stack and tramp 
around in imitation of the boy, and would also take the lines in 
its beak and follow the horses, breaking prairie, for a connai 
time, with a stately strut that was very amusing. 
For the first year or two in my grounds they were inclined to 
associate together, but gradually become estranged and avoided 
each other’s society. Indeed for years they avoided each other, 
and were never seen together. One season one of these birds 
- got into the north park and attached itself to the pigs, which it- 
followed about constantly, and when it returned to the south 
park seemed quite disconsolate, and kept near the dividing fence 
where it could see its friends on the other side, and if they came- 
near would greet them with its loud harsh note, which could be | 
heard half a mile away. Several times during the summer she 
Managed to join her unnatural associates and followed them with 
