BAIRD'S SPARROW 747 



Significant changes have occurred in the ecology of Baird's sparrow 

 since Elliott Coues (1878) found it in such numbers on the Dakotan 

 prairies in 1873 that "In some particular spots it outnumbered all the 

 other birds together." This plenitude is now but a memory, and the 

 Encyclopedia Americana gives the prime reason: "Few states in the 

 Union have a larger percentage of tillable land than has North 

 Dakota. * * * there are but small areas that are not marvelously 

 fertile." During the 1880's settlers poured into the state, and with 

 the turning of the sod, the species was doomed to severe decimation. 



During the following 40 years this decline in numbers continued 

 until Norman A. Wood (1923) reported: "On June 4, 1921, Mr. 

 Elmer Judd and I made a long trip by automobile north from Cando 

 [N. Dak.] to Snyder, Rock, and other small lakes. We were in quest 

 of this species, but it was not until passing many of their old haunts 

 that we at last found a male singing by the roadside near St. Johns 

 [N. Dak.], From here we drove north to the United States boundary 

 line, and there saw our second bird. These were the only two speci- 

 mens seen by me in life." 



For more recent word, Stanley Saugstad of the Minot, N. Dak., 

 district, writes me in 1962: "I have never known Baird's sparrow to 

 be common in this area. There is very little native sod in my home 

 community. I feel the species is less common than it was 15 or 20 

 years ago." A letter from Mrs. Robert Gammell of Kenmare, 

 N. Dak., adds: "In our area the birds are confined almost entirely to 

 native prairie and are common in that habitat in the Des Lacs and 

 Lostwood National Wildlife Refuges." 



Curiously enough, as the population of Baird's sparrow declined 

 in North Dakota, no general exodus seems to have taken place, 

 either to adjoining states or to the prairie provinces to the north. 

 Regarding this, Gale W. Monson of Arizona writes: "There is no 

 question in my mind that the conversion of vast prairie areas to 

 farmland had a profound effect on the numbers of Baird's sparrows 

 in North Dakota. This accounts, in my opinion, for the decline in 

 numbers of this species found wintering in Arizona after 1880." 



With the ehmination of North Dakota as an important breeding 

 area, it is necessary to go north of the international boundary to 

 find the greatest density of summering bairdii, since, at best, Minne- 

 sota, South Dakota, and Montana are but fringe areas for this species. 

 Both Alberta and Manitoba have fair numbers of the bird, and more 

 than half the known nests have been found in these two provinces. 

 Here, in southwestern Manitoba, I always know of communities 

 close by, but distribution is very spotty, as it is in all parts of the 

 province where Baird's sparrow summers. 



