SOME NOTES ON NEBRASKA. BIRDS. 57 



A LIST OF NEBRASKA BIRDS, TOGETHER WITH NOTES 

 ON THEIR ABUNDANCE, MIGRATIONS, BREEDING, 

 FOOD-HABITS, ETC. 



Nebraska appears to be well fitted as a home for many distinct forms 

 of birds, just as it is for the other kinds of animal life. From our 

 studies of these creatures for the past twenty-five years and those of 

 about fifty other persons whose notes we have had for reference, it 

 would appear that although a prairie state, Nebraska has an unusually 

 large bird fauna. These notes show 415 species and subspecies as 

 visiting the state, while there are records of 227 breeding within our 

 borders and more than 100 winter residents. When we learn that 

 only about 780 species are recorded for the whole of North America 

 north of the Mexican boundary, it certainly seems astonishing that 

 from among these we should receive so large a percentage. If, how- 

 ever, we take into consideration the variations in altitude above sea 

 level, the diiferences in surface configuration, climate, etc., that pertain 

 to our state, its location and the relation which it bears to the country 

 at large, perhaps the wonderment will become less. Our southeastern 

 corner is only about 800 feet, our western border almost 6,000 feet 

 above tide water. The state is divided into timbered, prairie and 

 plains regions. We lie nearly in the middle of the United States, 

 with a high mountain chain to the west and a giant waterway along 

 our eastern boundary. In fact in Nebraska meet eastern, western, 

 southern, and northern faunas; while we also have a fauna of our own. 

 We find forms belonging to low and high altitudes, to wet and dry 

 climates, to timbered and prairie countries, as well as to semi-desert 

 and alkali regions. 



Order PYGOPODES.— The Diving Birds. 



Family PODICIPIDiE.— The Grebes. 



The grebes feed chiefly upon snails and other aquatic animals, such 

 as are found in and about their haunts. They also destroy grass- 

 hoppers and such other insects as come across their path. They cannot 

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