PREFACE 
Effort has been made in this bulletin to obtain as com- 
plete a list of South Dakota birds as possible. In all, 322 species 
and subspecies have been recorded. With few exceptions these 
are represented in the University Museum collections at Ver- 
million. 
There is perhaps no State in the Union where bird study 
is more perplexing than in South Dakota. From east to west 
the State embraces birds of woods, prairie and mountains. The 
range of many birds is constantly moving westward, and this 
causes variation in the migrating routes of many species. The 
Black Hills, lying only a little apart from the Rocky Mountains, 
are apt to be visited occasionally by western species. 
From south to north, likewise, both trees and latitude 
affect the bird problem. The Missouri River with its wooded 
banks and ravines, traversing the middle of the State, provides 
conditions which attract some species farther north than they 
would otherwise come. But for this fact we probably would not 
have the beautiful Western Blue Grosbeak within our borders. 
Birds from farther east and south also, such as Cardinals and 
Wood Thrushes, follow the growing trees into South Dakota. 
Many birds are found in the southern part of the State which 
are never seen in the northern part; and some birds which form- 
erly nested in South Dakota no longer do so. 
So numerous, therefore, are the changes going on in bird 
life within the State that observations which were made a few 
years ago may not be accurate today and observations made to- 
day may not be accurate tomorrow. 
The authors desire to acknowledge their indebtedness 
particularly to the late Dr. Elliott Coues and to Mr. Frank M. 
Chapman, with whose works their own observations have been 
diligently compared; and to Mr. H. C. Oberholser and Mr. A. 
