108 The Wilson Bulletin— No. 109 



very center. I have never found a single example of 

 either of these birds in any other locality in this region 

 during the breeding season. What will become of them, 

 as well as the hordes of bobolinks, the marsh hawks, the 

 prairie hens, and other characteristic nesting birds, when 

 the last acre of virgin sod is ploughed for corn? The sand- 

 hill cranes, which still frequent this marsh in the spring 

 and fall, deserted it for the breeding season many years 

 ago. The last record of a crane's nest here that can be 

 considered authentic was in 1883. The other birds, less 

 alarmed by settlement but requiring these exact conditions, 

 must soon look elsewhere for breeding grounds. And with 

 the marsh and the birds, will disappear, locally, the Bland- 

 ing's turtle, the last massasauga, the pitcher plant, rare 

 orchids, and a generally peculiar native fauna and flora 

 not otherwise represented in this immediate region. 



Extreme abundance of a certain few birds during the 

 nesting season will be poor compensation for the loss of 

 others. Personally, I prefer to see a goodly number of 

 species on a day's excursion rather than hundreds of rob- 

 ins, martins, wrens and other familiar birds. But those 

 species that are able to adapt themselves to changed con- 

 ditions are the ones that may and do increase. In southern 

 Wisconsin, as in some other parts of the world, they will, 

 I believe, grow more and more abundant; while many of 

 the more interesting and beautiful forms of bird life must 

 become rarer and more restricted, until they cease to nest 

 at all, as the conditions necessary to their very existence 

 are swept away. A number of nesting birds have been ex- 

 terminated in southern Wisconsin since the settlement of 

 the country. We can not help but wonder which species 

 will be the next to go. The ruffed grouse, the Forster's 

 tern, and the upland plover were depleted in numbers at 

 Delavan, but no one, twenty years ago, would have pre- 

 dicted their complete disappearance from this region 

 within so short a time. 



