Word: birde
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...classical Legong, in which she dances in an intricate trio for about five minutes, suddenly breaks off (at home in Bali, this part of the dance might last an hour), trots offstage like any twelve-year-old, and returns with a pair of golden wings to portray the Bird of Evil Omen...
...whooping crane (Grus americana) is the tallest bird in North America. Depending on how proudly it holds its long neck, it can stand from four to six feet. It is also probably the noisiest bird; its elongated windpipe so amplifies its hysterical cry that it can be heard two miles away. Pure white, except for some black wing and head feathers and reddish-brown head spots, it is one of the most beautiful of birds. In flight, its wingspread is seven feet; on the ground, it walks haughtily through marshes in search of frogs and snakes, or performs...
...crane is a vanishing aristocrat. Like human monarchs, it has had trouble adjusting to modern times and keeping its royal line going. Most of the whooping cranes disappeared with the American and Canadian frontier. Today the crane is the rarest bird on the continent; only 25 are known to exist...
...Fish and Wildlife Service set up the Aransas Refuge on the Gulf Coast to provide a protected wintering place for the cranes. Each April, the birds head north over the Midwestern states, then disappear into their unknown nesting grounds in Canada. Each September the surviving birds return with an average total of four baby cranes. For years, bird experts have searched Canada by helicopter, on horseback, in jeeps and on foot, hoping to find the crane's nesting grounds and protect it from predators...
...another set of baby crane prints. Last week, after studying photographs and measurements of the tracks, Professor Rowan announced that the baby crane tracks gave proof that the area is a nesting ground for the whooping crane-the first found in Canada since 1922. Under the 1916 Migratory Birds treaty with the U.S., Canada's Wildlife Service is now bound to protect the area and do all it can to prevent the rare bird from becoming extinct...