22 



WHOOPING CRANE. 



legs being red; like those of the present, the year old birds are 

 said also to be tawny. 



It is highly probable that the species described by naturalists 

 as the Brown Crane (Ardea Canadensis), is nothing more than the 

 young of the Whooping Crane, their descriptions exactly corres- 

 ponding with the latter. In a flock of six or eight, three or four 

 are usually of that tawny or reddish brown tint on the back, sca- 

 pulars and wing coverts ; but are evidently yearlings of the Whoop- 

 ing Crane, and differ in nothing but in that and size from the others. 

 They are generally five or six inches shorter, and the primaries 

 are of a brownish cast. 



The Whooping Crane is four feet six inches in length, from 

 the point of the bill to the end of the tail, and when standing erect 

 measures nearly five feet; the bill is six inches long, and an inch 

 and a half in thickness, straight, extremely sharp, and of a yellow- 

 ish brown color; the irides are yellow; the forehead, whole crown 

 and cheeks are covered with a warty skin thinly interspersed with 

 black hairs ; these become more thickly set towards the base of 

 the bill; the hind head is of an ash color; the rest of the plumage 

 pure white, the primaries excepted, which are black; from the root 

 of each wing rise numerous large flowing feathers projecting over 

 the tail and tips of the wings ; the uppermost of these are broad, 

 drooping, and pointed at the extremities, some of them are also 

 loosely webbed, their silky fibres curling inwards like those of the 

 Ostrich. They seem to occupy the place of the tertials. The legs 

 and naked part of the thighs are black, very thick and strong; the 

 hind toe seems rarely or never to reach the hard ground, tho it 

 may probably assist in preventing the bird from sinking too deep 

 in the mire. 



