WHOOPING CRANE. 
313 
lant, so that it is with the greatest difficulty they can be shot. They 
sometimes rise in the air spirally to a great height, the mingled noise of 
their screaming, even when they are almost beyond the reach of sight, 
resembling that of a pack of hounds in full cry. On these occasions 
they fly around in large circles, as if reconnoitring the country to a vast 
extent for a fresh quarter to feed in. Their flesh is said to be well tasted, 
nowise savoring of fish. They swallow mice, moles, rats, &c, with great 
avidity. They build their nests on the ground, in tussocks of long grass, 
amidst solitary swamps, raise it to more than a foot in height, and lay 
two pale blue eggs, spotted with brown. These are much larger, and 
of a more lengthened form, than those of the common hen. 
The Cranes are distinguished from the other families of their genus 
by the comparative baldness of their heads, the broad flag of plumage 
projecting over the tail, and in general by their superior size. They 
also differ in their internal organization from all the rest of the Heron 
tribe, particularly in the conformation of the windpipe, which enters 
the breast bone in a cavity fitted to receive it, and after several turns 
goes out again at the same place, and thence descends to the lungs. 
Unlike the Herons, they have not the inner side of the middle claw pec- 
tinated, and, in this species at least, the hind toe is short, scarcely 
reaching the ground. 
The vast marshy flats of Siberia are inhabited by a Crane very much 
resembling the presentj with the exception of the bill and 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 corresponding 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, scapulars, and wing coverts, 
but are evidently yearlings of the Whooping 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 yellowish brown color ; 
the irides are yellow ; the forehead, whole crown and cheeks are covered 
* This is an, error inte which our author was led in consequence of never having 
seen a specimen of the bird in question (Ardea Canadensis, Linn. — Grits Freti 
Hudsonis, Briss.). Peale's Museum contained a fine specimen, which was brought 
by the naturalists attached to Major Long's exploring party, who ascended the Mis- 
souri in the year 1820. Bartram calls this Crane the Grus pratensis. It is known 
to travellers by the name of Sandhill Crane. 
