THE 



WILSON BULLETIN 



NO. 54. 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY 



VOL. XVIII MARCH, 1906 NO. 1 



THE BIRDS OF SCOTT COUNTY, IOWA. 



BY BURTIS H. WILSON. 



Scott County lies on the north bank of the ^Mississippi river, 

 which flows westward in this part of its course. The country- 

 consists mostly of rich, rolling farming land, with a few pieces 

 of second growth oak timber, and much willow, maple, and 

 elm timber along the river bottoms and on its islands. High 

 bluffs interrupt the narrow border of rich bottomland over 

 which the river often spreads during the high spring water. 

 During the first ten years of my studies the country roads 

 were nearly everywhere bordered by osage hedges, but during 

 the past ten years the most of these hedges have been replaced 

 by the more useful and effectual barbed-wire fence. These 

 hedges and the orchards and shade trees surrounding the farm 

 houses formed excellent breeding places for many species. 



A muddy creek, called Duck creek, which is usually nearly 

 dry during the summer, but from ten to twentv feet wide dur- 

 ing the rest of the year, flows easterly just north of the city of 

 Davenport, and then into the Mississippi river about three 

 miles east of the city limits. 



The city of Davenport, which occupies about ten square 

 miles of the county, has several large parks, and there are 

 many shade trees in the yards and along the streets, forming 

 ideal resorts for the town-loving birds, as well as for many 

 rare straggles which occasionally stop. Fully half of my ob- 

 servations were made within the city limits, but many of them 

 were in the thinly settled outskirts. 



