THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 43 



1 have wanted one often and at times it has seemed as tliough I must 

 get one if I should attempt to study the birds any further. But I knew 

 that the first time I killed a specimen for identification my motive 

 would be misunderstood and I should be accused of inconsistency; for 

 in school and out I urge bird protection constantly. This is my reason 

 for not having a larger list of birds, but balanced with the harm I 

 might have done I am well satisfied. 



In the present paper I shall not attem])t to give a complete scientific 

 list of the birds I have noted, but shall give only those which are in 

 any way unusual or about which I have some observation which I 

 think to be of interest. They are not arranged according to any 

 scientific plan, but I have given them as they came to my mind or 

 ■were sug'gested by some previous observation. 



If you take a maj) of Nebraska and with the center at York draw 

 a radius of fourteen miles, this circumference would inclose my field 

 of observation. Along the east and west diameter runs a small stream 

 called Beaver Creek. The Big Blue River runs in a parallel direction 

 nine miles south and a small creek five miles north has the same 

 easterlj' direction. Bet^veen these* are strips of rolling prairie or farm 

 lands, mostly under cultivation and devoid of native trees. Along 

 the streams are scant belts of timber, nearly all being new growth. In 

 these strips were located a number of basins which usually held 

 standing water of varj^ing depth. But with the advance of settlement 

 and owing to their value as farm land these have nearly all been 

 drained and are now cultivated fields. 



One large basin southwest of York covered nearly 600 acres and was 

 from three to forty Inches deep. In most parts grew a rank growth 

 of marsh grasses and willows, which afforded protection and nesting 

 places for a number of waterfowl. During the summers of 1896 and 

 1897 I found in this basin nests of Least and Black Tern. Sora Rail, 

 Pied-billed Grebe, Coot, Blue-winged Teal, and Yellow-headed Black- 

 bird. The Black Tern nested in colonies of from three to ten pairs in 

 a bit of open shallow water. Their nests were always built up above 

 the water level although saturated Mvith. moisture. The nests of the 

 Least Tern were not over the water but on the banks and only one 

 of five contained three eggs, the other four recorded having two each 

 until incubation was well advanced. I was informed by prominent 

 ornithologists to whom I sent the eggs for identification that this was 

 the first known instance of the nesting of Least Tern in Nebraska.* 

 One nest of the Sora Rail contained eighteen eggs while two more 

 contained fourteen each; these nests were built in the tall grass over 

 the shallower water. In the weeds growing in the deepest places the 

 Yellow-headed Blackbird placed its basket nests. These contained 

 three or four eggs, only one nest with five being seen. This basin is 



* But L. Skow had also found it breeding at Cut-oif Lake near Omaha, which fact was 

 referred to in Bruuer's Notes ou Nebraska Birds, published iu April, 1896. — Ed. 



