406 
ALECTORIDES. 
or eight ; but these were so wary that he only succeeded in shooting two. He inquired 
of the Mexicans as to where they bred, and was informed that their eggs could be 
procured at a lagoon some distance to the west of Bagdad, Boca del Bio Grande. Mr. 
Dresser was not able to go there, and was thus unable to test the accuracy of this 
very doubtful information. On his return to Matamoras, in 1864, he saw none at the 
lagoons there. During his rambles in Texas he saw this bird on only two or three 
occasions near San Antonio, and once at Point Isabel. He was told that it is occa- 
sionally seen on Galveston Island, and at the mouth of the Brazos Biver. Mr. J. A. 
Allen was informed that it is tolerably common in the valley of Great Salt Lake, 
both in the spring and in the fall. 
Mr. Boardman writes me that, so far as he is aware, this species is wholly unknown 
on the coast of Maine ; and I can find no certain evidence that it has ever been seen 
in any part of New England. It is not given by Giraud as a bird of Long Island, 
and is very rare on any part of the coast north of the Chesapeake, though Mr. Turn- 
bull states that, in 1857, while at Beasley’s Point, he saw three of this species off the 
inlet. They were very wary, and could not be approached. In Wilson’s day a few 
appeared in the marshes of Cape May in December, particularly on and near Egg 
Island, and lingered in those marshes during the whole of the winter, setting out 
northward about the time the ice broke up. During their stay they wandered about 
the marshes and muddy flats near the sea-sliore, occasionally sailing from place to 
place with a low and heavy flight, just above the surface, at times uttering a loud, 
clear, and piercing cry, which might be heard to the distance of two miles. This 
singular cry — to which the Whooping Crane owes its name — is uttered with vari- 
ous modulations. 
As Wilson considered the G. canadensis to be but the immature bird of this species, 
we cannot with certainty separate his statements and assign each where it belongs. 
He states that lie frequently met with it in the low grounds and rice plantations of 
the Southern States, noticing it near the Waccamaw Biver, in South Carolina, on the 
10th of February, and in a pond near Louisville on the 20th of March. The birds 
seen were extremely shy and vigilant. They would sometimes rise spirally in the 
air to a great height, the mingled noise of the screaming, even when the flock was 
almost beyond the reach of sight, resembling that of a pack of hounds in full cry. 
On these occasions they flew around in large circles, as if reconnoitring the country 
to a vast extent for fresh quarters to feed in. His information in regard to their 
breeding must be rejected as agreeing in no respect with the present reality. Audu- 
bon also regarded the canadensis as identical with the young of this species, and he 
gives the time of its arrival in the western country as about the middle of October 
or first of November, in flocks of twenty or thirty, and even thrice that number, 
spreading from the Northwestern States to the Carolinas and Florida, on the south- 
east to Louisiana and the countries bordering on Mexico, in all of which this Crane 
spends the winter, returning north about the beginning of May. He found it on the 
edges of large ponds, in swampy woods, and in extensive morasses. In its migra- 
tions it travels both by night and day. He states that in the fall, while the water 
is low in the ponds, this bird works with its bill in the mud to uncover the roots of 
the great water-lily, which when reached it greedily devours. While intent upon 
this the bird may be easily approached. As soon as the heavy rains fill these pools 
it abandons them, and resorts to other places. It is said to frequent fields in 
which corn, peas, sweet potatoes, etc., have been planted, feeding on the grain and 
peas, and digging up and devouring the potatoes. It also feeds on water insects, 
frogs, reptiles, moles, and field-mice. Audubon once found a garter-snake fifteen 
