SECOND ANNUAL MEETING 71 



CHANGES IN THE BIllD FAUNA OF THE PllATrvlES IN THE PAST 



THIRTY YEARS 



r,. SESSIONS, NORFOLK 



No one who luis lived long- in Nebraska can fail to note the changed 

 appearance of our state since the first settlers attempted home-making 

 on open prairie land ^vlthout the companionship of trees to shelter 

 them from sun and storm, and immediate care they gave to planting a 

 little grove of some rapid growing variety of trees which were to meet 

 this want. And while waiting, memory seemed ever taunting them with 

 thoughts of the old home wnth its trees and birds. But the birds in their 

 journeyings northward stopped to inspect the little grove and soon a 

 partnership was formed with the homesteader, and family after family 

 came to cheer him with their songs, and to aid in successfully combat- 

 ing the hordes of hungry insect pests which came swarming in from all 

 sides. 



In the spring of 1S71 it was the writer's good fortune to see the prai- 

 ries of northeast Nebraska in their native beaut3% No overstocked 

 pasture lands giving an impression of barrenness, but a rich growth of 

 new grass covered, both upland and valley, with many tints of green. 



The larger water courses were marked by a narrow belt of cotton- 

 woods, but beyond this the counti-y was almost destitute of tree or 

 shrub. The supply of water in the uplands was very limited, especially 

 so in the clay lands, and Chestnut-collared Longspurs and a few Lark 

 Buntings were about the only evidences of bird life to be seen. 



Along the valleys favorable conditions of food and shelter attracted 

 birds in great numbers and species; their tameness being in marked 

 contrast to the habits of their relatives in older states, and afforded 

 the lover of birds many rare opportunities of noting their ways. I wish 

 I could picture with my pen the wonderful abundance of certain fam- 

 ilies of birds at that time and so clearly draw the lines that by contrast 

 with the i^resent we might realize our loss. 



Perhaps the most interesting scenes in bird life were to be found 

 arcnind ])rairie sloughs and small ponds in the Sand Hills. I have now in 

 mind one of these ponds, located but a short distance from my home and 

 which covered only about one acre in surface, where in the spring of 

 1876 I found Blue-winged Teal, ]Mud Hens, Eared and Pied-billed Grebes, 

 Godwits, Long-billed Curlews, Wilson's Phalaropes, and a long list of 

 sandpipers busily occupied with their homemaking. But herds of cattle 

 have long since destroyed these favorite nesting places. The same is 

 true of many of our creek valleys where sheltering thickets of wild 

 plum, willow and other shrubs formerly aft'orded attractive homes for 

 tree birds. But now well trodden muddy banks, close-cropped herbage 

 and broken thickets afford but little attraction for our songsters. 



