The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-27
WHoopING CRANES.
The Tale of the Last Ones Killed in Ne-
 braska


 braska.
 The last wiiooping crane in Nebraska : was killed on. October 23, by Harry Counsman and w. Y. Teetzel, up on the tule flats west of Three Spring Lake, 2 just west of ''Anse'' Newber1y's old place, north of Cody. Counsman and Tee-zel were after ducks, and were ly- ing in their blind in the rice and jules awaiting the evening flight. A bunch of greenwings had just flashed by, tipping the tops of the rice with their speckled bellies almost, when Counslnan held up his hand as an admonitory signal to his companion, and coming whence was a cry so wild and strange, vet ringing as the blast Of slivery horn, that made them peer into each others faces with much concern. Again it came, long drown, sonorous, grrrrrrrrroooo, and, thinking probably it might be as well to prosecute their investigatioi from secret point of vantage, the two duck hunters crouched low among the flags, and then, between the interstfces searched the heavens with eager eyer The strange sound seemed to come from somewhere above, but only after it was sounded again and again, and after they had scrutinized every league of he Armament in every direction, were they rewarded with the sight of the authors of those wild notes. Y Far in the north, against the over reaching blue, they caught sight of four wisps of down, like splatches of snow against the sky, and instinctively knew that it was from these that ringing, ghostly grrrrrrrrooooo emanated. Closer the four objects came, enlarging as they came, until the languid motion of their huge sails was visible and. their cries growing nearer and more penetrating, the hunters were enabled to make out that they. were some species of a rare bird and simultaneously they exclaimed 'Swain!' Again came that far reacfl- ing .tremolo, and the excited hunters saw the four huge birds set their wings and in a line of bluish gray against the sky drift toward them, and when they had settled to where the old sandhill Thunderberg, formed a background, and those wild tones sounded clearer and more searching, they grasped their guns with tighter grip, though the birds were yet fully a mile away.
 No other bird has the same pornp and ceremony about his movements, and when the four big white cranes, instead of coming down, swept round the lone ly amphitheater in miles of spiral Counsman and Teetzel gave up all hope of getting a shot. But closer and closer each wind brought them in nearer the tule blind, and it was evident that the birds were circling the lake only as a precautionary manoeuvre before alight- ing. They had certainly been trained in an efficient school. They knew the danger hidden within rice clumps and jules, and keen eyes, failed to note, ever from their lofty aerial pathway wal undeserving of suspicion, when 1t came time to drop their long, blackish slate colored legs and settle in the shallow waters or. or some jutting point.
 Thoroughly beneath the arching grushes the two hunters, while it seemed ages had but brief time to wait and the birds drew thrillingly near. Four monster birds. three times as big as the biggest Canada goose, pouring a flood of the most far reaching sound that rolls from 8 living throat wheeling and sheeling above them, with the suns rays glancing from their dagger backs and wildly waving wings. Both gunners had their nerve to the last, and a. the first crack of one of those good old shells one came whirling down al- most upon Teetzel's head, and as the flame soputed upward from Counsnan's gun another left his two mates and fell into the rushes as the other pair, screaming affrightedly, vanished. fad ing over old Thunderberg's frowing brow.-O Omaha World Herald.