The Sandhill Cranes 
suspicion of approach. The two eggs, reckoned among the handsomest by 
amateurs, are protectively colored to the point of practical invisibility. 
They are of a warm brownish buff, tilleul buff, as to ground-color, spotted 
and blotched with verona brown. This is the authentic crane type—faith¬ 
fully reproduced, for example, in the very different-appearing but struc¬ 
turally related Limpkin, or Crying-bird (.Aramus gigantens). 
The intimate history of the young of this splendid species will prob¬ 
ably go unwritten, for we have chosen to make enemies of the Sandhill 
Cranes. If, indeed, there are any breeding birds of this species left in Cali¬ 
fornia, there are probably not above half a dozen pairs all told. The 
authors of “The Game Birds of California’’ knew of no positive record 
since that of Dr. Henshaw, who, on July 29, 1878, took a pair of partly 
grown young at Fort Bidwell, in Modoc County, although they record, on 
the authority of Mr. L. Tevis, the occurrence on April 30, 1912, of a pair 
at Buttonwillow, which seemed to be nesting. I saw a pair of adult Sand¬ 
hills on the shores of Goose Lake, June 20, 1912; and another pair un¬ 
questionably breeding at Eagleville, in the Surprise Valley, on the 30th 
of June; and again on 
the 12th of July of that 
same year. 
Sandhill Cranes are 
omnivorous feeders, their 
long stiletto-like beaks 
being equally suited to 
spearing grasshoppers, 
frogs, lizards, crickets 
and other insects, and 
to probing the earth in 
search of sprouting grain 
or succulent bulbs, such 
as they love. The birds 
are capable, on occasion, 
of rising to such sportive 
fare as mice and young 
gophers. Indeed, Nel- Taken in Oregon 
son tells us that the 
natives at the mouth of the Yukon raise the young of the related form, 
G. c. canadensis, and keep them about camp because of their usefulness in 
keeping down vermin. I should be rather chary of keeping such a pet my¬ 
self, because a crane, like a bittern, if angered or brought to bay, will 
strike for the eye, and he does not need to strike twice. 
SANDY, Jr., SHAKES A LEG 
Photo by William L. Finley 
I5 2 9 
