'One day, long long ago, before the white man came to America, a party of Sioux Indian warriors were out hunting. They had left their village far behind. Before they realized it, the group of braves found themselves alone in the bare and rocky badlands of the West.
'Suddenly the sky darkened … . There was a clap of thunder that shook the earth. Looking up in terror,
the Indians thought they saw the shape of a giant bird falling to earth … .
'The band of hunters
traveled over the badlands for days until they came at last to the spot where they thought the giant bird had fallen. Nothing was left of the terrible creature but its bones … .
'The Indians shuddered as they looked at the monster's skeleton. The bird had fallen so hard they thought, that
its bones were partly sunk in the rock. But the braves could see that its wingspread was as big as four tall men standing on top of one another. The strange creature had fierce claws on its wings, as well as on its feet, and the beak was long and sharp. There was a long, bony crest on its head. The Indians knew that they had never seen a bird like it before.'5