WHOOPING CRANE. 
25 
exception of the hill 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 ( urdea 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 
colour; the i rides are yellow; the forehead, whole 
crown, and cheeks, are covered with a warty skin, 
thinly interspersed with black hairs ; these become 
more thickly set towards the base of the bill; the hind- 
head is of an ash colour ; the rest of the plumage, pure 
white, the primaries excepted, which are black ; from 
the root of each wing rise numerous large flowing 
feathers projecting over the tail and tips of the wings ; 
the uppermost of these are broad, drooping, and pointed 
at the extremities, some of them are also loosely 
webbed, their silky fibres curling inwards, like those of 
the ostrich. They seem to occupy the place of the 
tertials. The legs and naked part of the thighs are 
black, very thick and strong ; the hind toe seems rarely, 
or never to reach the hard ground, though it may 
probably assist in preventing the bird from sinking too 
deep in the mire. 
