Vol. V, Part 4 May 1. 1912 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Nebraska Ornithologists' Union 



SOME NOTES ON THE SUMMER BIRDS OF 

 SOUTHWESTERN NEBRASKA 



BY M. H. SWENK AND J. T. ZIMMER 



The western edge of the extreme southern part of the state 

 of Nebraska, embracing Dundy, Chase and Perkins counties, 

 or the area between the fortieth and forty-first parallel and 

 the fourth and fifth guide meridian west, has been on the 

 whole but poorly studied ornithologically, especially as re- 

 gards the migrating birds, and so far as known to us no ornitho- 

 logist has made observations on the migrants of this portion of 

 the state. Our knowledge of the winter birds is largely 

 gained from observations made on a one day trip from Wray, 

 Colorado, and Haigler, Nebraska, November 16, 1901, by L. 

 Bruner and R. H. Wolcott. The co-authors of this paper have 

 both visited the region under discussion in the early summer 

 and made close observations on the summering birds. Swenk 

 first visited the region in July 1903, Avhen, in company 

 with L. Bruner, bird observations covering three days, the 

 23 to the 25, were made along the line of the Burlington from 

 Max to Haigler. Again, in 1905, Swenk spent a week in the 

 region, driving over the plateau from Ogallalla, Keith county, 

 to Imperial, Chase county, and collecting around Imperial, 

 Culbertson, in Hitchcock county, and Haigler, in Dundy 

 county. Zimmer arrived at Grant, Perkins county, on June 

 30, 1911, and the next day drove across country to Imperial, 

 leaving Imperial on July 3 and spending July 4 to 11 explor- 

 ing the region about Haigler. 



The area under discussion lies in the plains region of the 

 state, but there is at places a tendency toward sandhill forma- 

 tion, especially north of Haigler, east of Imperial and east and 



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