, 1889-09-11
THE CRANES, ISLAND HOME.
A Great Nesting Place for Them on an
Island on the Georgia Coast

A Great Nesting Place for Them ON nm
Island on the Georgia Coast.
Visitors to Daufuskie Island during
the summer tell of the roosting and
brooding places of the cranes on the
island. Storks, cranes and bitterns
spend the day along the estuaries of
the seacoast and wade and fly over the
miles and miles Of salt marshes.
Alongab about A o'clock in the afternoon
they begin TO collect in the matted
shrubbery and underground of Dau-
fuskie Island for the night. They fly
singly, by pairs, and in Hooks ranging
from twenty-five TO fifty.
A gentleman who was Narrowing
on the island a few days ago said that
he was ignorant of the habits of the
sea fowl, and one evening, near twi-
light, he was returning TO his quar-
tiers, and when passing near a dense
thicket he heard a great ~chattering,
and many of the voices sounded like
that of humans. Resting on his gun
he listened attentively, and finally
came to the conclusion that it was a
colony of cranes. He threw a stick
into the thicket, when, with a wild
shrek and screech, some 400 or 500
francs flew out, circled about a while,
and having recovered from their
fright, settled down again from sight,
still keeping up their chatter and clat-
ter.
Capt. w. J. Thompson says the
cranes find in the dense underground
OF some parts of the island a secure
and almost unapproachable retreat
from intrusion, and there they lay
their eggs and rear their broods of
young. Few people have the temer-
ity to invade the thicket to disturb
eggs or young birds, for it is not only
a home for the cranes, but a paradise
for rattlers and moccasins, which are
the only enemies which make much
Roadway against the cranes 1t is said,
however, that n or two summers
ago a daring hunter, with difficulty,
forced an entrance into the thicket
and carried off three barrels of eggs,
for which he found a ready market
in Savannah at the price of hens eggs,
for which he sold them, but as the
eggs are highly priced by epicures, he
might have more than quadrupled his
money if he had shipped them north.
The experience was SO p%erilous and
difficult, however, that no one has
ventured into the thickets + o disturb
the nests since.
DClOlO e ing NhO htoI hC DdiChl
birds bring them small fish, often
from a great distance, and feed the
young, and a hunter who shot a crane
on the island said that she had nearly
two hundred small minnows in her
pouch. AS the young grow older,
larger fish are caught by the parent
birds, which are carried in their bills,
and the fish eagle watches the flight
of the stork and crane, and often pur-
sues, forces the frightened bird TO drop
the prey, and, with unerring descent,
the fish eagle catches the fish before i.
reaches the water or the ground
The cranes go further south on the
approach of cold weather, but if the
winter is an open and mild one they
do not all migrate, and their tall
forms and now white plumage are
often seen in winter through the herb.
age of the marshes like a picture.
The ran is pursued vigorously by
the hunter, who finds a ready market
for the plumage, as the snow white
feathers are popular with the women
of fashion, and plumage dealers in
New York have hunters regularly
employed at a salary in the south
Florida and along the Atlantic and
Gulf coasts of the peninsula, and all
through the almost impenetrable la.
goons and bayous of the Everglades,
who keep up the warfare on the birds
of plumage and song all through tbs
winter, and this fact has led to the
agitation of the question whether G
rigid law should not be passed to pun
ish by fines and penalties all who are
convicted of shooting any birds except
those which are edible. Savanna
News.