BOARD OF GAME AND FISH COMMISSIONERS 
71 
farmers’ gardens and fields appeared they took kindly to corn and other grains 
and potatoes and were said to do considerable damage to such crops at times. 
A favorite method of hunting them was to use the interior of a hollowed out 
corn-shock as a place of concealment and shoot them as they alighted in the field 
to feed. Much slaughter could thus he done by a single discharge of a battery of 
guns. The young birds were fair eating and in the seventies and early eighties 
they were offered for sale in our markets in considerable numbers. 
The so-called “dances” in which Cranes indulge themselves in the mating 
season are famous and were once common spectacles on the prairie knolls of 
Minnesota. These curious antics have been graphically described by many early 
writers. The following is from Goss’s Birds of Kansas : “During the courtship 
and the early breeding season their actions and antics at times are ludicrous in the 
extreme, bowing and leaping high in the air, hopping, skipping, and circling about, 
with drooping wings and croaking whoop, an almost indescribable dance and din, 
in which the females join, all working themselves up into a fever of excitement 
equalled only by an Indian war dance; and, like the same, it stops only when the 
last one is exhausted.” 
A smaller variety of Crane, the Little Brown Crane, is occasionally found in 
Minnesota, usually mingled with the larger kinds. It is to be distinquished from 
the Sandhill only by its smaller measurement. The Survey collection contains 
a single speciment taken not far from Minneapolis, April 2, 1894. This bird 
measures from the bend of the wing to the tip of the longest feather only 18i 
inches; the bill only 4 inches, while in the Sandhill these measurements are re¬ 
spectively about 22 and 5.50 inches. 
RAILS, GALLINULES AND COOTS ( Rallidae ). 
Though this family is represented in Minnesota by only a few species it is 
worthy of special note, since in number of individuals it comprises by far the 
greater part of the aquatic bird life of the marshy lowlands of the state. As 
Minnesota possesses an almost indefinite number of sloughs, ponds and marshy 
lakes and they all teem with members of this group, especially in the fall when the 
numerous young are added to the adults, the aggregate population reaches a figure 
difficult of even imagination—certainly many millions. 
The most abundant species are the Sora and Virginia Rails and the Coot, which 
are found all over the state, while the big King Rail and the Florida Gallinule are 
less numerous and confined to the southern half. A sixth species, the little 
Yellow Rail, is apparently uncommon, though its secretive, mouse-like habits may 
be more responsible for the lack of information in regard to it than its actual 
scarcity. It is known to be a summer resident, for its nest and eggs have been 
found at Lake Wilson, Murray County, by Mr. A. S. Peters, June 10, 1917, the only 
record for the state thus far (see The Oologist, XXXV, p. 28). P. B. Peabody has 
also reported its presence in the breeding season near Hallock, Kittson County. 
All the Rallidae build coarse nests of dead grass leaves and stems, supported 
o-Jy a few inches above the water. Those of the Coot and Gallinule are usually 
out in the open, while the Rails seek the shelter of thick vegetation. They are 
all very prolific, laying large clutches of eggs, especially the smaller species. The 
Sora and Virginia Rails lay commonly 10 to 14, and occasionally 16 to 17 eggs. 
