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204. Whooping Crane, white crake. Grus americana. L, 50. A very large, 
white, heron-like bird with black primaries and bare, dull red lores, crown, and face streak 
(Figure 147). Juveniles have not as much colour on the bare parts of the head and face 
and are more or less completely overwashed with rusty, strongly resembling the iron that 
stains the white parts of many water birds. 
Distinctions. There is no other white crane-like bird of equal size with which it 
can be confused. 
Field Marks. A great white Crane with a red face, standing about 4 feet in height. 
In flight, the outstretched neck and legs are distinctive for a Crane, and the great size and 
the white plumage with black wing tips for this species. 
Nesting. On the ground, in the midst of wide marshes. 
Distribution. North America, in Canada, west of the Great Lakes to the foothills, 
breeding throughout its regular range. Now very rare and verging on extinction. 
It is a regrettable fact that increased wariness and native vigilance 
never quite compensate for the handicap of large size in a wild bird or 
animal in its struggle for existence with civilization. The Whooping 
Crane is amongst the wariest of birds. It frequents the bare prairies and 
open sloughs where its great height from the ground gives it every opportun- 
ity to note approaching danger; yet from being a fairly common bird on 
the prairies it has been practically exterminated within the last thirty years. 
Today in our Prairie Provinces we know of but a few scattered breeding 
pairs. It is a serious question whether the species can be preserved to 
posterity. When a species becomes too low in numbers it succumbs to the 
weakened condition induced by inbreeding in spite of every protection 
that can be offered. Whether this is the case with the Whooping Crane 
remains to be seen. At present it is listed among the birds that are pro- 
tected at all times, and it is to be hoped that this protection has not come 
too late. The last chance of preserving this, probably the most spectacular 
bird of the prairies, depends entirely upon the people of the prairies. All 
localities cannot be watched by wardens and no game laws are capable 
of 100 per cent enforcement. If occasional birds are killed there, it will 
matter little to the species that the offender is caught and punished, for 
the irreparable damage will have been done. Laws can do little for a case 
like this, but an aroused public opinion is much more efficient. Many may 
brave the laws on occasion but hesitate before doing that which will bring 
the condemnation of their personal friends and neighbours. It is to be 
hoped that no community will permit of the killing or disturbance of these 
birds without the expression of their utmost displeasure as well as the 
infliction of the utmost penalty the law allows. 
