The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-08-12
THR HOME OF THE CRANES.
Inc Nesting and Brooding Places of
the Fowl on Dauflskte.

The Nesting and Brooding Places of
the Fowl on Daufuskie.
Visitors to Daufuskie island during the
summer tell of the roosting and broodinp
places of the cranes on the island. Storks.
cranes and bitterns spend the day along the
estuarles of the sea coast and wade and Av
over the miles aud miles of salt marshes.
Along about 4 O'Clock in the afternoon they
begin to collect in the matted shrubberv
and undergr owth of Daufuskie island for
the night. They fly singly, by pairs and in
tiocks ranging from twenty-five to fifty.
A gentleman who was Narrowing on the
island few days ago said that he was
Ignorant of the habits Of the sea fowl, and
one evening near twili9h he was returning
to his quarters, and when passing near a
dense thlcketi he heard a great chattering.
and many of the voices sounded like that
OF humans. Testing on his gun he listened
attentively aud finally came to the conclu-
sion that it was a colony Of cranes. He
threw stick into the thicket, when with
Wild shrek and Screech some 400 or 800
cranes flew out, circled about awhile
and having recovered from their frigh
settled down again from sig lt, still keeping
up tneir continuous chatter aud clatuer
Capt. w. j. Thompson says the cranes
find in the dense underground of some parts
| OF the island a secure and almost unap-
| proachable retreat from intrusion, and
there they lay their eggs and rear their
| PROOFS OF young. Few people have the
temerlty to invade the thlcket to disturb
eggs or young birds, for it is not only a
nome for the cranes, but paradise for rat
tiers and moccasins, which are the ONLY
enemies that make much heedway against
the cranes. 1t is said. however, that
| one or two summers ago daring
hunter, with difficulty, forced an en-
trance 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 perilous and difficult
however, that no one has veutursd into the
thlckets to disturb the mes s since
| Inc young cranes are now pretty we'll
hedged, and most of them have taken to
looking out for themselves. Before leaving
the nest the parent birds bring them small
fish, often from a great distance and
feed the young, and hunter who
shot crane on the island a few DAVIS
ago, said that she had nearly 200 small
mlnowS 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 to flight of the
| 49, n eiAA NAoiiSY anu blltu puFSueS, forces
the frightened bird to drop the prev and
with unerrlng descent, the fish eagle
catches the fish before it reaches tho water
or the ground.
The cranes 60 farther south on the an
proach of cold weather, but if the winter is
an open and mild one they do not all
migrate, and their tall form and snow
white plumage is often seen in winter
through the herbage of the marshes like a
picture.
The crane is pursued vigorously by the
hunter who finds a ready market for the
pIumage, 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 lmpenetrable lagoons and bayous of
she Everglades who keep up the warfare
upon the birds of plumage and song ali
through the winter, and this fact has led to
the agitation of the question whether a
rigid law should not be passed to punish bv
fines and penalties all who are convicted Of
shooting any birds except those which are
edible