48 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SOME NOTES ON NEBRASKA BIRDS. 



LAWRENCE BRUNER. 



INTRODUCTION. 



For upwards of tweuty-five years the writer has taken an interest 

 in our birds and made notes relative to their abundance, migrations, 

 nesting, food-habits, etc., simply for personal gratification. 



About two years ago, during a conversation in which the relation of 

 birds to horticulture incidentally arose, Professor F. W. Taylor sug- 

 gested the advisability of devoting a portion of a succeeding annual 

 report to our Nebraska birds. With this object in view both the pro- 

 fessor and the writer broached the matter to other members of the So- 

 ciety. Several at once not only became interested in the matter, but 

 suggested its early accomplishment. Our late lamented Secretary, D. 

 U. Reed, was especially in favor of the scheme. Accordingly it was 

 decided that my usual report as entomologist should be* omitted from 

 the present volume and its place given to one on birds. 



It is on these grounds that I now present for publication some 

 "Notes on Nebraska Birds," and it is to be hoped that they will in a 

 measure, at least, have the desired effect, viz., the protection of our 

 birds, which means the destruction of insect pests in proprotion as tiie 

 protection reaches out. Just so soon as it was decided that this sub- 

 ject be treated in the present report efforts were at once made to secure 

 all such additional material and information as would tend towards 

 making our knowledge as complete as possible. Correspondence with 

 various persons interested resulted in the bringing together of notes 

 taken by about forty separate workers located in different parts of the 

 state. 



Of course the vast am'ount of material thus brought together had 

 to be assorted and arranged at odd times between working hours in 

 the University. While the paper is not what it should be, nor even 

 what it might have been, if coming from a different person, still it is 

 fairly satisfactory as a basis for future work. 



