192 STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETINS. 



BIRDS OF MICHIGAN. 



No. 94. — Zoological Department. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Of the several lists of the birds of Michigan, from that of Dr. Abram Sager, 

 published in 18.39, to the most recent by Dr. Morris Gibbs, published in the Orni- 

 thologist and Oologiet, Vol. 10, 1885, not one is accessible to the younger students 

 of ornithology. While some of the lists are quite full and accurate, not one gives 

 the food and nesting habits of our birds. Such a list can but fill a pressing need, 

 and must receive a most hearty welcome. Indeed I have had frequent inquiries for 

 a catalogue, by my students and others, and often have been urged to prepare a 

 list. 



Owing to my very numerous duties at the college, and my greater interest in the 

 study of entomology I have, previous to this time, been unable to give any time 

 to this work. The past summer the valuable manuscripts of the late Dr. H. A. 

 Atkins came into my hands, and the State Board of Agriculture voted that I should 

 prepare a list, to be sent out as a bulletin by the experiment station. 



Having taught ornithology for the past twenty-six years at the Michigan Agri- 

 cultural College to large classes, in which there wef-e many good observers who 

 had already made some progress in this study, and who represented many sections 

 of the State, and having in the meantime made quite a considerable collection, 

 through the aid of my students, of birds and birds" eggs for our museum, of which 

 I have had the entire charge. I have been able to gather many and some valuable 

 facts regarding the birds of our State. 



I have also had in my possession all the manuscripts of the late Dr. H. A. Atkjns, 

 of Locke, Michigan, who was for twenty-nine years a most enthusiastic and con- 

 scientious student of this branch of natural history. Dr. Atkins kept a careful 

 record of the birds of Locke, Ingham county. Michigan, with the date of the capt- 

 ure of each species, the time of the first appearance and exit, each year, and the 

 full dates of all migrations. This record was very full and accurate, considering the 

 meager literature that Dr. Atkins had at his command. Dr. Atkins visited me 

 quite frequently, and I am assured of his entire devotion to this science, and his 

 earnest effort to secure all possible accuracy in his determination of species and 

 his statements of facts. I have received valuable aid from Dr. Atkins" carefully 

 prepared manuscript, and have starred every bird that he reported from our State. 

 For the dates, nesting habits, number and color of eggs. I am much indebted to 

 these manuscripts which, through the kindness of Mrs. Atkins were put into my 

 possession. Nearly all the birds reported by Dr. Atkins have also been taken here, 

 and so have come under my own personal observation. Dr. Atkins" observations 



