CRANES 
169 
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 10(J 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 its displeasure as well as the infliction of 
the utmost penalty the law allows. 
The deep, sonorous trumpeting of this bird is probably due to the great 
length of the windpipe that lies coiled 
up within the keel of the sternum in 
a complicated convolution (Figure 
241). The windpipe enters the fore- 
front of the keel and reaches directly 
back to the rear of the sternum, 
there it bends back sharply, enters 
into a double coil in the front end of 
keel, and emerges through the same 
orifice by which it entered. The 
folding and looping of the windpipe 
are much more complicated than 
either that of the Sandhill or Little 
Brown Cranes next described (Com- 
pare with Figure 243). 
205. Sandhill Crane. ( Incorrectly “Turkey”.) la grub guise d’amerique. Grus 
canadensis. L, 36-40. Plate XX A. A large, evenly light slate-coloured, heron-like bird 
with bare face and forehead coloured bright red. Old birds may show much adventitious 
rust colour and young ones have a wash of about the same colour naturally. 
Heads of Sandhill Crane, Little Brown Crane, showing average comparative size; 
scale, J. 
Distinctions. With large size only to be confused with the Great Blue Heron, which 
is also often popularly called “Blue Crane.” Easily distinguished, however, by the hind 
toe raised above the level of the others, the bare forehead, face red in adult, and the nostrils 
pierced through from one to the other. The crane never has any of the fine plumes on breast, 
crown, and back that are such prominent features of the Blue Heron in spring dress. 
Figure 241 
Longitudinal section through sternum of 
Whooping Crane; scale, about 
