40 Proceedings of the 



south of Grant. At other places, especially in Perkins and 

 Chase counties, there are no real sandhills and the plateau is 

 covered with typical plains vegetation. There is no stream of 

 any size in Perkins county ; in Chase county the largest river 

 is the Whiteman's Fork of the Republican, or as it is called 

 thereabouts, the Frenchman ; Dundy county is crossed in the 

 southern part by the Middle Fork of the Republican or the 

 Arickaree. Whiteman's Fork is a small stream, narrow enough 

 to leap across at many points and flowing through a treeless 

 valley. The Arickaree is rather broad but the farmers along its 

 course so deplete the supply of water for irrigation purposes 

 that the bed is almost dry before it reaches the Kansas-Nebras- 

 ka line. The season of 1911 was excessively dry, and at the 

 time of these observations there was no running water, only a 

 few pools here and there fed by springs and not over a foot or 

 so in depth, usually less. In 1903 and 1905, which seasons were 

 characterized by more rainfall, there was running water in the 

 river bed. In places along the Arickaree there are scattered 

 clumps of trees, and willow covered "islands" are not infre- 

 quent. The presence of even this thin tree growth has a pro- 

 found effect upon the species of birds one is apt to meet, and, as 

 the following list and annotations will show, is a pathway 

 which eastern species are following in extending their range to 

 the westward. The lower valleys in the river bottom are cov- 

 ered with high grass, with here and there a reedy marsh, but 

 these latter were largely dried out in 1911. Back from the 

 river valley one comes at once to treeless hills covered with 

 sagebrush, yucca and cactus, varied with blowouts where the 

 soil is sandy, and not infrequently, along the margin of the 

 river bed, eroded into more or less prominent bluffs and buttes. 

 "While the total numbers of species observed, fifty-three, is 

 not large, it is believed to represent practically all of the species 

 present in the summer season, except occasional stragglers, and 

 includes all of the common breeders in the region. It adds con- 

 siderable definite knowledge of the exact distribution of many 

 of our birds and shows pretty clearly the character of the shift- 

 ing of ranges of the various species in this part of the state 

 within the past decade. 



I. Querqucdiila discors (Linnaeus) — Blue-winged Teal. 



A pair of these ducks was flushed from a pond a few miles 

 south of Grant, June 22, 1905, by Swenk. 



{Olor buccinator (Richardson) — Trumpeter Swan. 

 On June 22, 1905, while riding on the mail stage from 



