Outwitting The Sand Hill Crane 
Naturally wary and sagacious, this great bird 1s increasing in numbers 
under the present regime of rigid, absolute protection 

) UTUMN used _ to 
: bring sand_ hill 
cranes, on their 
journey for the 
south, for a two or 
three weeks’ visit 
each year. You 
“1 would frequently see 
{} them in the vicinity 
of the large duck- 
ponds. They did not 
seem to mind the shooting much, but 
they seemed to know just how far to 
keep away, to be out of range of the 
shot-gun. 
Time after time, a friend of mine, 
and I tried to sneak up on them. One 
time we put in a whole day chasing 
them from place to place until we were 
fully convinced that it couldn’t be 
done. They did not fly far each ‘time, 
probably a half mile, or sometimes less. 
"We would creep through the, long 
prairie grass on our hands and knees 
for two or three hundred yards, and 
when we would get within a hundred or 
a hundred and twenty-five yards of 
them, they would call “Cr-rew, cr-rew,” 
and up they would go, circling around 
for a while and alight again. 
One flock in particular consisted of 
about a hundred birds. This time they 
came down in a deep pot-hole, sur- 
rounded by a good growth of weeds. 
Now we were sure of our game. We 
held a consultation, and came to the 
conclusion that if they could not see us, 
hear us, or smell us, there was no 
reason in the world why it wouldn’t be 
possible to get within shot-gun range 
of them. 
We traveled around a half circle in 
order to have the wind just right, we 
did not converse even in a whisper, not 
knowing how keen their sense of hear- 
ing might be, and we took every pre- 
caution to be well concealed while 
creeping along. Everything seemed to 
be in our favor. The grass was long 
and weedy with a good growth of wild 
sun-flowers and daisies; through this we 
wormed our way along until within ap- 
proximately one hundred yards of them 
and again we heard the same call, 
“Cr-rew, cr-rew,” and off they flew. 
E held another consultation and 
decided that we were not at fault 
this time, that the reason they left was 
they wanted to go some place else. 
By’ DR. Jt B. CECKA 
They did not fly far, again alighting 
in a good place. 
After we had rested for a while and 
picked some of the thistles out of our 
bruised hands, and admired the ever- 
enlarging holes in the knees of our 
hunting pants, we tried it again. There 
were two things we did not lack, and 
they were preseverance and determina- 
tion. 
This time the results were about the 
same; the ouly difference was that the 
holes in our knees had worn clean 
‘through our underpants and instead of 
having thistles and slivers just in our 
hands we had them in our knees also, 
and so the day ended. We had wasted 
a whole day, and what a perfect day it 
would have been for duck shooting. We 
came home that night,two tired, ragged 
bruised, disgusted, but wiser men. We 
had learned that it couldn’t be done; at 
least we could not do it. 
jp Xe I had gone to bed that night 
I lay awake a long time, thinking 
over the day’s events. In my mind I 
had a vivid picture of the whole scene. 
I kept asking myself. “Why did we 
fail? There is a reason; but. what is 
it?” All at once I knew, Oh, how 
simple. Why, I could go back there and 
shoot “those long-legged pesky things,” 
any day I wanted to. I wished it had 
not been so late, I would have gotten 
up, and gone up to my friend’s house 
and told him about it. 
The next day started in with a driz- 
zling rain. I had a bad cold and did not 
get out of the house until about four 
P.M. My friend, the editor of our City 
paper, was busy setting type when I 
stepped into his office. As soon as I 
éame in he knew that something was up. 
He asked me. “Well, did you figure it 
out?” I told him I did, and I offered to 
lay him a wager that I could this very 
day go back there, and come back with 
a sand hill crane. He dropped the type, 
and said, “For God’s sake, tell me how!” 
After I had told him what the cause 
of our failure of the day before was, he 
said, “It is absolutely simple, run home 
and get your shot-gun, I will phone to 
the livery barn for the horse and 
buggy.” I protested; it was late, the 
roads were muddy, for it was still rain- 
ing some, and I had a cold. The dis- 
tance was nine miles one way, but noth- 
ing would do, we must go. We got 
ready as quickly as possible, and started 
out. When we got to within about a 
mile or so of a small duck-slough we 
could see a large flock of cranes, feed- 
ing near by. From a distance they 
looked tike so many sheep grazing on a 
hill-side. 
WE drove our horse up to a side of a 
hay-stack, unhitched him and tied 
him to the buggy. Then we took our 
shot-guns, and a 25-20 rifle and started 
to walk in the direction of the cranes. 
We did not get very far before the 
cranes stopped feeding, and with out- 
stretched necks they stood there watch- 
ing us. We kept on going not trying to 
conceal ourselves. This seemed to puzzle 
them. After they were satisfied that we 
were after them, they started off like so 
many aeroplanes, first running about 
five yards, with their long wings fan- 
ning and wind, they were soon up in the 
air, flying about a mile or so before 
they alighted behind a distant hill. 
Now was the time for action; we lay 
down our shot-guns, loaded the rifle 
and proceeded to do a little target shoot- 
ing. Wherever we saw anything in the 
distance, especially on a hill-top, that 
looked like a grey rock, we would shoot 
at it, and a number of them proved to 
be cranes, here and there off in the dis- 
tance. They were the sentinels, the 
spies that warn the main flock when 
danger is near. After we had made 
‘sure that we had them all flushed out, 
we put away the rifle, and going to the 
slough, we lay down in the rushes and 
rolled over and over in the same direc- 
tion, making it look like a heavy wind 
had blown them down. Then with our 
Winchester pump guns, loaded with No. 
1 chilled shot, we crawled under the 
rushes, pretty close up to the water- 
line. Knowing that before night set in 
the cranes would be seeking water, and 
by the numerous tracks and loose 
feathers in the soft mud along the shore 
of this slough, we guessed that this was 
where they would come. 
WE must have been pretty well hid- 
. den under the heavy growth of 
rushes, for shortly after we hid a brown 
cowl that happened to be looking for his 
supper, seeking mice and moles among 
the rushes, flew over us, although he 
saw something, he did not seem to make 
(Continued on page 747) 
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