em hairy woodpecker, and in a taller, more isolated stub a sparrowhawk will 

 sometimes make his winter home. 



In a sheltered nook in the hemlock woods a few robins will usually be found 

 spending the winter. These robins that winter in the swamps are usually the ones 

 seen first in the early spring. The migrating robin, the one that has made the 

 journey from the South, is the one that announces his arrival in early morning 

 from the topmost branch of a lofty tree. 



Seven different species of owls are usually to be found here in winter. This 

 does not include the rare hawk owl, which has been taken on one or two occa- 

 sions. Of the hawks there are six species, but they, like the owls, are never com- 

 mon, only an occasional one being seen. 



More than fifty species of birds, not including the waterfowl, have been 

 found in winter along the shores of Lake Ontario. A number of other species 

 remain until the early part of the winter, when they move a little further south, 

 to return again as soon as the first signs of spring become apparent. 



Range: Mainly restricted to southern Mackenzie and northern Saskatche- 

 wan ; winters from the Gulf States to central Mexico. 



If we go back. about a century we find this, the largest of our cranes, 

 abimdant and nesting over a vast area stretching from the Mackenzie region to 

 Iowa, a strip 1,500 miles long by less than 300 miles wide. Cooke states that 

 eggs of this species were taken in Iowa as late as 1894, and at Yorkton, Sas- 

 katchewan, as late as May 16, 1900. In its day and generation the whooping crane, 

 big and conspicuous as it is, was common enough, as is attested by numerous 

 authorities. Thus, Nuttall, speaking of a night on the Mississippi in December, 

 1811, says, ''The whole continent seemed as if giving up its quota of the species 

 to swell the mighty host. The clangor of their numerous legions, passing along, 

 high in air, seemed almost deafening." Today what a contrast ! The clangor of 

 passing multitudes no longer fills the air, for this noble bird whose number was 

 legion a century ago, is now practically extinct in the Atlantic States, while only . 

 a few pairs manage to maintain themselves in far out-of-the-way places, and so 

 to delay for a few years the final extinction of the species. 



In early colonial times the whooping crane was taxed with pillaging corn 

 fields and doubtless suffered for its crimes. Moreover, its flesh was reputed to 

 be excellent, and no doubt this fact contributed to its destruction. One of the 

 regulations under the Federal law fixes a closed season till 1918 for our three 

 species of cranes, whooping crane, sandhill crane, and Httle brown crane, but, so 

 far as this species is concerned, the regulation probably comes too late. 



{Grus americana) 



584 



