G-RUIDJS — THE CRANES — GRUS. 
413 
eggs. He found it as far west as tlie Bocky Mountains. Mr. Murray met with it on 
Hudson’s Bay, and Mr. Boss found it common along the banks of the Mackenzie 
Eiver as far north as the Arctic coast. 
Hearne, in his “ Journey to the Northern Ocean ” (p. 423), refers to this species 
as the Brown Crane, speaking of it as greatly inferior in size to the Whooping Crane, 
and as being seldom more than three and a half feet in length, and not weighing 
on an average more than seven pounds. Its haunts and manner of life are, he adds, 
nearly the same as those of the larger species, each pair never having more than 
two young, and these being seldom able to fly before September. This species is 
found much farther north than the larger one, several having been killed by him on 
Marble Island ; and he has also met with it on the continent as high at least as lati- 
tude 65°. It is generally esteemed good eating, and goes by the name of the “North- 
west Turkey.” He states that the gizzard of this species is larger than that of the 
Trumpeter Swan, and is especially large in the young bird. In hot calm days the 
Brown Crane may be frequently seen soaring to an amazing height, always flying 
in circles, until by degrees it passes almost out of sight. Yet its note is so very loud 
that the sportsman, before he sees its situation, will often imagine the bird is very 
near him. This species visits Hudson’s Bay in far greater numbers than the larger one. 
Bichardson also states that it is found in all parts of the Bur Country in summer, 
even as far as the shores of the Arctic Sea. Its flesh is regarded by him as excellent, 
resembling that of the Trumpeter Swan in its flavor. It breeds throughout the 
Arctic regions. 
Mr. Kennicott met with this species at Fort Besolution, May 30, where he procured 
two examples. Mr. MacFarlane obtained a skin, in the autumn of 1863, from the 
Eskimos on the Lower Anderson Biver, and an egg in June, 1864, from an island 
in Franklin Bay. The nest is said to have been a hole scooped in the sand, and lined 
with a considerable quantity of withered grasses. A few more birds of the same 
species evidently had nests on the same island, but they could not be discovered. 
Dr. Walker met with a single specimen of this bird at Pond’s Bay, in latitude 72°, on 
the west coast of Baffin’s Bay ; but it has been very rarely seen so far north as that 
coast. 
An egg of this species (S. I. No. 15731) obtained by Mr. MacFarlane in Liverpool 
Bay, on the Arctic coast, measures 3.65 inches in length by 2.30 in breadth, is oval 
in shape, and very nearly equally obtuse at either end. Its ground-color is a faint 
washing of sepia-brown, and it is marked, over the entire egg, with patches of pro- 
nounced sepia, which become more and more deep until about the larger end they 
form a ring of darker and still more distinct sepia. 
