1921 IXTRODUCTION 7 



at the University Biological Station at Flathead Lake, and for the privilege of 

 examining the collection of birds at the University. 



Montana is a state that is now being developed very rapidly. In the 

 last ten years many changes have taken place, changes that have had a great 

 effect on its bird life. Many of the most interesting species are becoming 

 rare. The Trumpeter Swan, the Sandhill and Whooping cranes and other pic- 

 turesque species are no longer common. The day is fast approaching when 

 the Long-billed Curlew and the Sage Hen will be ver}^ rare, even in the more 

 remote localities. The cause of these changes in bird life is the rapid settle- 

 ment of the country, involving the building of railroads, and the clearing, 

 plowing and irrigating of the lands. Even though these threatened species are 

 protected by law, they must go sooner or later; for the cause of their scarcity is 

 not so much the shooting or other persecution on the part of man, as his mere 

 presence, his occupation of the ground wher(^ they had been accustomed to breed. 

 Species like the Killdeer can adapt themselves to the new conditions, and can 

 become even more abundant in the presence of man than before. But such l)irds 

 as the Curlew cannot accustom themselves to the change, and there seems to be 

 no way that man can help them. They are doomed to become rare, perhaps total- 

 ly extinct. The study of these changing conditions and their effects on bird life 

 is an important one for the future ornithologist in Montana. 



Another sort of change that is taking place, that causes many puzzles to the 

 student of distribution, is that which concerns geographical names. The map 

 accompanying this list is taken from the most recent one I could obtain, one 

 dated 1917. But no map can keep up with the rapid changes in names that are 

 taking place. New towns appear, and often older towns, remote from newly built 

 railroads, become deserted and remain as memories only. It is already diffi- 

 CLdt to find the location on accessible maps of many of the older records. Coun- 

 ties have been created in eonsideral)le nnmlier in the past few years. The area 

 covered by j\Ir. E. S. Cameron's work, including Custer and Dawson counties, 

 now covers seven counties, Richland, Dawson, Wibaux, Prairie, Custer, Fallon, 

 and Carter. In the text I have referred to this area still as "Custer and Dawson 

 counties" because it was not possible in such cnses to locate the Cameron records 

 more closely. However, a large majority of these records, those located at Terry 

 and Fallon, are in what is now Prairie County. I have shown on the map, wher- 

 ever it was possible to do so, all the important localities mentione>I in the text. 



In the writing of this list I have followed the American Ornitholo-rists' 

 Union Check-List. 1910, and its supplement, in nearly all particulars. In the 

 use of certain English names I have departed somewhat from the authority of 

 this list. I have added to names of eastern subspecies and species, the adjective 

 "eastern" when the Check-List does not do so. Thus, Astvagalinus tristis tristis 

 is the Eastern Goldfinch and A. t. palUdiis the Western Goldfinch. To call the 

 eastern form simply Goldfinch is unsatisfactory to any ornithologist whose field 

 experience is wider than the range of the eastern subspecies. In the same man- 

 ner this principle may apply to species in some cases. Stialia sialis should not 

 be tJ'e Bluebird, but the Eastern Bluebird. At least this is so from the stand- 

 point of a resident of ^Montana, where S. currucoides is the Bluebird. I have 



