80 The Wilson Bulletin— No. 112 



NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF THE FORT LEAVEN- 

 WORTH RESERVATION, KANSAS 



BY DAVID C. HILTON^ LINCOLN^ NEBRASKA 



liiti-odiiction. 

 While an Officer of the Medical Corps, United States 

 Army, in charge of the snrg'ical clinics of the Army Hos- 

 pital and tlie Hospital of the United States Disciplinary 

 Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, covering the period 

 of the spring migration^ 11)19, I made a casual check list 

 of the birds observed and miscellaneous notes pertaining 

 thereto. Hospital duties occupied at least the forenoon 

 and the early afternoon each day. Bird observations were 

 limited to an hour or more from time to time after four 

 o'clock p. m., excei)t for a very occasional stroll of a Sun- 

 day morning by prearrangement with the Commanding 

 Officer, and of evenings when I would steal away from the 

 haunts of nmn at dusk to receive in the depths of the 

 woods the punctual and boisterious nocturnal greetings of 

 nmnerous whippoorAvills and to pursue a growing interest 

 in the night life of nature by imposing myself as a sort of 

 ^' officer of the day " over the night patrols in nature's 

 population, tlie wliile meditating on the " home sweet 

 home " of a volunteer medical officer. 



The reservation at Fort Leavenwortli, including that of 

 the Unite<l States Disci])]inary Barracks, comprises a few 

 thousand acres of u]dands and river-bottoms skirting the 

 west bank of the i\Iissouri river, above the city of Leaven- 

 worth, Kansas. The bottoms are low lying marshy flats, 

 heavily timbered with cottonwoods, interspersed with elms, 

 save only a portion that has been cleared and dyked for 

 cultivation. The u])lands in places abutting the river as 

 bluffs, are checkered with oi)en woods, broad meadows, 

 copsy streairilets, dry liillsides, and fallow lands, dispersed 



