THE OOLOGIST 



43 



rare linds in auy part of thii country. 



Catalofifues listing prices surely need 

 another intelligent revision. 



I do not pretend to anything like a 

 comprehensive knowledge of the pres- 

 ent distribution of species. My obser- 

 vation has been limited. Born near 

 tho boundary Hue of Wisconsin and 

 Illinois, when that was the frontier, 1 

 have gradually moved northwest with 

 some purpose of keeping abreast of the 

 western trend, so that it has been with- 

 in narrow limits that 1 have witnessed 

 what has seemed the rapidly accelerat- 

 ing movement which is decimating cer- 

 tain species at shortly recurring inter- 

 vals. 



Twenty-tive years ago 1 watched the 

 apparently unending flight of the Pas- 

 senger Pigeon. Once 1 was accustom- 

 ed to hear the Bald Eagle spoken of as 

 rather common — yet in the past dozen 

 years in the likeliest country I cannot 

 be sure that I have seen but three. On 

 the Mississippi in an early day we did 

 not think of the Swallow-tailed Kite as 

 especially rare — yet the other day a 

 correspondent wrote me that he had 

 just been so fortunate as to procure a 

 set of two eggs at $25.00. 



Along Rock lliver in Southern Wis- 

 consin "back in the sixty's" the Canada 

 Goose occasionally nesl^d. J^ater on 1 

 found it, if at all, in Northern Iowa 

 and Minnesota, while now I should con- 

 gratulate myself if I found two or three 

 uesls in a season away out here in their 

 natural home, which only a dozen 

 years ago was wholly unsettled. It, is 

 likewise with the Sandhill and Whoop- 

 ing Crane, the Trumpeter Swan, the 

 Great Blue Heron, the Cormorants, 

 Loon, Bittern, many Ducks, Woodcock, 

 Long-billfcd Curlew, White Pelican and 

 others. 



Eleven years ago the last named ored 

 here on Devil's Lake in great numbers, 

 and a thrifty idler shipped one or two 

 barrels of their eggs to an Eastern deal- 

 er. Since that time they have not oeen 



known to nest just here, though an oc- 

 casional small tlock may be seen circl- 

 ing high overhead during the breeding 

 season and I have not since been able to 

 locate a nesting colony. The Common 

 Tern and Franklin's Gull that furnished 

 a local hotel many a basket of :eggs for 

 the table ten years ago, before the ad- 

 vent of poultry, nest but sparingly here 

 now and the latter so successfully hide 

 their breeding spot that no one can say 

 with certainty that they have any here. 



Whether the once familiar Bluebird 

 is becoming extinct or whether it has 

 only temporal iiy changed its range is 

 being much discussed. 



I may be growing old and my faculty 

 for discovering nesting spots may be 

 failing, but I no longer seem to be able 

 to locate the nests of some species that 

 in early days seemed commonest finds, 

 and it becomes a very natural conclu- 

 sion that a large number of species is 

 being rapidly pushed northwest and 

 west into regions either sparingly peo- 

 pled or wholly untit for human habita- 

 tion—regions otfering to many varieties 

 scarcely any recommendation except 

 freedom from pursuit i)y man — where 

 vegetation is scanty and natural food 

 supply in the shape of insect life much 

 reduced. 



Of course these observations do not 

 apply to even a majority of species for 

 many thrive best where population is 

 dense. Su'^h seem to enjoy contact 

 with man and the domestic animals 

 and are, doubtless, safe from extinct- 

 ion. John Burroughs, one of the clos- 

 est observers of bird life, says that the 

 British Isles with their decse popula- 

 tion and their thousands of years of 

 race activity, present the spectacle of 

 amazing fertility among the common 

 species of l)irds abounding there. 

 Nests of man}' contain habituallj' larg- 

 er sets than the same species exhibit 

 here and no combination of adverse in- 

 fluences avails to stem the tide of exub- 

 erant bird life. 



