86 Bulletin of the 



energetic in its movements and characteristically bright, bold and fearless when 

 in or near its nesting place. That this bird is a valuable one and should by 

 all means be protected there is no doubt. Investigation clearly determines the 

 almost inconceivable number of insects and larvae destroyed daily by this 

 active and attractive little bird. The eggs and nest lining shown in photo- 

 graph were taken from an elm tree thirty inches in diameter at base ; nesting 

 opening being fifty-eight feet from ground. Lining of nest with eggs was 

 placed on the ground and photographed. 



To closely observe this bird during its nesting period one must expect 

 to encounter what is usually considered very unpleasant conditions of the 

 weather. The woods and meadows, therefore, often present a variety of ap- 

 pearances even in a single day. Wind, rain, and often snow storms are met in 

 the space of a few hours, and the snow which in the morning lightly covered 

 the ground has by nightfall entirely disappeared due to the falling of the soft 

 spring rain or the increasing warmth of the sun which has occasionally shone 

 through the broken and drifting clouds. These climatic changes though are 

 merely considered as incidental to the object in view, and to an extent — at 

 least while they last — are more or less enjoyed. The observations above men- 

 tioned were made in the spring of 1903 near Royal Oak, Oakland County, 

 Michigan. 4 



Detroit, Mich, Sept. Jjth, 1903. 



NESTING OF THE SANDHILL CRANE IN MICHIGAN. 



EDWARD ARNOLD. 



The Sandhill Crane (Grus mexicana) still nests .sparingly in southern 

 Michigan. I have heard of a pair nesting within twenty miles of Battle Creek 

 within the past five years. 



On May 8th, 1901. I started from Battle Creek for Jackson to try and 

 locate a nest of this bird, a friend having told me that he had seen a pair 

 of birds in a certain marsh. About five o'clock the same day in spite of the 

 fact that it was raining, I hired a farmer boy and at once started in quest 

 of the nest. The country was hilly and the marsh covered with a scattering 

 of tamarack trees. The boy told me the cranes flew across the marsh morn- 

 ing and evening calling their peculiar notes. The marsh grass and rushes were 

 thick, the mud and water deep, and to add to the difficulty of traveling fallen 

 trees were scattered all over the marsh — some flat on the ground, some under 

 the grass and water and the rest three or four feet above the grass. 



After an hour and a half of hard work I flushed one of the birds from 

 her nest and found the two eggs. The nest was located in the center of an 

 acre of marsh surrounded by tamarack trees and was a massed lot of grass 

 tamarack stems and willow brush about ten inches deep, the top about one 

 half foot above the water. The bird flew when I w r as within one hundred 

 feet of the nest — I had previously circled it several times and she must have 

 been there all the time. 



The eggs measure 3.80x2.49 and 3.85x2.52. The ground color is a light 

 greenish ashy buff spotted and blotched with reddish, dark brown and 

 various heliotrope shades. 



On the 5th of May, 1902, I located this same pair of birds in the marsh 

 within a half mile of the first nest T found the previous year, and the birds 

 acted in a similar manner. The space where nest was built was surrounded 

 by tamarack trees, and dead trees were lying in the long heavy marsh grass 



