572 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 8, 1910. 
flying north or south, high in air, sounding at 
regular intervals their rolling trumpet calls. 
These notes had great power, and sometimes 
could be heard long before the birds came in 
view, and after they had disappeared- Often the 
flocks used to alight on the bare prairie, walk¬ 
ing about there and feeding, and it was unusual 
for them to be in a situation where they could be 
approached. Rarely in those days one could 
creep within rifle shot, and sometimes a bird was 
killed, but on the whole they were well able to 
take care of themselves. A wounded crane was 
not to be approached carelessly. The Indians 
say—as do many white men-—that it can infl.ct 
severe wounds with its strong beak, and that it 
strikes at the eyes of its enemy. How exact these 
statements may be, we do not know, but we well 
recall many years ago seeing a sandhill crane, 
whose wing had been broken by a rifle ball, 
standing in the middle of a circle formed by a 
company of United States Cavalry, no man of 
which showed any disposition to approach it. If 
one of the men ventured out of the ring toward 
the bird, the latter promptly rushed at him, and 
there was a hurried retreat. 
The dancing of the sandhill crane has often 
been witnessed and is very interesting. Many 
observers describe it as a mating ceremony, per¬ 
haps analogous to the spring dancing of some 
grouse, but we have seen it practiced in the 
autumn just as the dancing, booming or drum¬ 
ming of various grouse is also practiced in 
autumn. 
Mr. S. S. Visher, in the Wilson Bulletin, tells 
interestingly of this dancing as he witnessed it in 
Sanborn county, South Dakota. He says: “I 
have often watched the mating dance, each time 
with increasing interest. In the early spring, 
just after break of dawn, the groups that were 
separated widely, for safety, during the night, 
begin flying toward the chosen dancing ground. 
These flocks of six or eight fly low and give 
constantly their famous, rolling call. The danc¬ 
ing ground that I knew best was situated on a 
large, low hill in the middle of a pasture of a 
section in extent. From this hill the sur¬ 
face of the ground for half a mile or more in 
every direction could be seen. As soon as two 
or three groups had reached this hill a curious 
dance commenced. Several raise their heads high 
in the air and walk around and around slowly. 
Suddenly the heads are lowered to the ground 
and the birds become great bouncing balls. Hop¬ 
ping high in the air. part of the time with raised 
wings, and part with dropping, they cross and 
recross each other’s paths. Slowly the speed and 
wildness and the hopping over each other in¬ 
creases, until it becomes a blur. The croaking, 
which commenced only after the dancing became 
violent, has become constant. The performance 
continues, increasing in speed, for a few minutes, 
and then rapidly dies completely out, only to 
start again upon the arrival of more recruits. By 
seven o’clock all have arrived, and then for an 
hour or so a number are constantly dancing. Oc¬ 
casionally the whole flock of two hundred or so 
break into a short spell of crazy skipping and 
hopping. By nine o’clock all are tired and the 
flock begins to break up into groups of from 
four to eight, and these groups slowly feed to 
the windward, diverging clowly, or fly to some 
distance. 
“Just before nightfall the flock again convenes, 
but after a half hour or so of spasmodic danc¬ 
ing, groups fly silently away in different direc¬ 
tions to grassy depressions, where they spend the 
night.” 
It may be remembered that many years ago a 
correspondent wrote to Forest and Stream, de¬ 
scribing a belief of the Blackfeet Indians that in 
their migration these' cranes transport the sora 
rail on their backs north and south. This re¬ 
minded him of the belief of the Crow Indians 
mentioned many years .earlier by Dr. J. C. 
Merrill, that the sandhill cranes carry on their 
backs in migration, a small bird with short round 
wings and a short bill, which Dr. Merrill conjec¬ 
tured might be the pied-billed grebe. Dr. Merrill, 
of course, did not see the bird which the Crows 
said was carried by the cranes, and could only 
guess the species from the Indians’ imperfect 
description. 
1 'hese beliefs of Indians living on the Plains 
of toe United States remind us again of the 
faith held by the Arabs, that certain small birds 
are transported across the Mediterranean Sea by 
larger birds, perhaps geese, and storks, in their 
migrations north and south. 
Few things are more interesting to the student 
of natural history — whether it be human natural 
history or that of lower forms of life — than these 
similar beliefs held by primitive people separated 
by (jreat distances, and having no communica¬ 
tion one with another. Yet we are all wholly in 
the dark as to what these beliefs mean, how 
they arise, or whether they are founded on facts 
or merely on fancy. 
A Legend of the Lark. 
The Ainu (the aborigines of Japan) have 
many legends about birds, one of which is very 
pretty. It is thus given by a recent witer: 
“The skylark used to live in heaven. One day 
the God of heaven sent him down to the earth 
with a message for the gods who reside here, 
telling him to return the same day. But the 
little bird thought the earth such a nice place 
that he stayed to play. He was here so long 
that it began to grow dark, ^nd he therefore 
determined to spend the night on the ground. 
The nexti day he arose in the air to return to 
heaven, but God met him when he was about 
six score feet up and said : ‘Why did you not 
return as I told you? As, therefore, you have 
disobeyed my words, you shall not return to 
heaven, but live upon the earth. Although you 
may attempt to fly as high up as heaven, yet 
you shall never be able to get any higher than 
one or two scores of six feet.’ The little bird 
was exceedingly concerned at this, and, arguing 
with God, Said: ‘Oh, great God, as the world 
you made is so beautiful. I could not help taking 
a look at it, and so got late. Although you chide 
me for this, yet I will fly back to heaven.’ In 
this way he answered God. But God did not 
consent. Therefore, the little bird grew more 
and more distressed and daily went as high as 
he could, pleading all the time; yet God would 
never consent to his entrance into heaven again. 
He therefore returned to the earth to play. After 
a time he ascended and did the same thing, yet 
God did not consent. The same thing continues 
to happen now every ‘summer, but God never 
will allow him to return.” 
This, as I have said, is very pretty and even 
spiritual, but it seems to have been a happy acci¬ 
dent, for it is in striking contrast to the other 
legends which are more or less stupid and point¬ 
less. Frank Moonan. 
Bear Pictures. 
Pictures of Yellowstone Park bears are 
common enough. In some cases they are labeled 
“Bears in the Yellowstone Park”; in others, 
“Wild Grizzly Bear in Fastnesses of the Rocky 
Mountains.” The caption for the cut seems 
sometimes to depend more or less on how many 
tin cans show up in the picture; in other words, 
whether the photographer is skillful enough to 
work the tin cans out of sight. 
In the present pictures there seems to be no 
opportunity to conceal the cans which occupy 
the center of the picture. They are the cans 
in which slops are hauled from the hotel to the 
dumping ground, where the bears gather for 
their food. The cart is driven by James Rose, 
nick-named “Shorty,” who is a good photog¬ 
rapher. It is hauled by a horse known as 
“Whiskers,” and it happens “Whiskers” is 
wholly indifferent to bears. He does not care 
particularly for them, nor does he dislike them; 
above all he is in no degree afraid of them. 
In many places the bears of the Yellowstone 
Park, especially the black bears, will eat out of 
your hand—if you will let them. Most people 
do not let them. Naturally these bears are 
wholly unafraid of Whiskers and his driver, 
and in fact some of them are disposed to get 
up in the cart and share the driver’s seat. As 
it happens, however, the matron, wjiose portrait 
— with her family—is given, will not stay on the 
cart while it is in motion. When it stops, she 
is ready to jump in and make a dive into one 
of the cans, but if Whiskers starts up again she 
quickly jumps off. She happened to be stand¬ 
ing in the cart when Shorty called to Whiskers 
to move along, and as she jumped off, Shorty 
took her picture, but his shutter worked too 
slow to arrest motion on the plate, and the image 
is partly blurred. The two smaller bears seen 
in the picture are her cubs. 
Crow Depredations. 
Raleigh, N. C., Sept. 22.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: William L. Sanders, of Durham 
county, is a breeder of chickens on a very large, 
scale and tells a story for which he vouches, 
but which seems strange indeed. He says crows 
have killed over 4,000 of his chickens, coming 
after the little fellows and carrying them off 
to their nests. Mr. Sanders says that neighbor¬ 
ing farmers have suffered the loss of practically 
all their little chickens in exactly the same way. 
Crows are very numerous in that locality and 
have several nesting places in pine forests. 
Sanders and several of his neighbors made an 
investigation and found more than a bushel of 
bones about the crows’ nests. Sanders says he 
raises the fowls in incubators, but the crows 
carry them off as fast as the incubators can turn 
them out. There are always plenty of crows in 
North Carolina, but this is the first charge of 
this kind laid against them on a large scale. 
Can it be possible that the crow is going to be¬ 
come like the kea, or Australian parrot, which 
has changed its habits from a nut-eater to a 
meat-eater, and which tears out the kidneys 
from live sheep and eats them? 
Fred. A. Olds. 
