ie ora ty) Stopparp, Rarer Birds of Sauk and Dane Cos., Wis. 63 
NOTES ON A FEW OF THE RARER BIRDS OF SAUK 
AND DANE COUNTIES, WISCONSIN. 
BY H. L. STODDARD. 
Part of the following notes were made during a four years’ resi- 
dence at Prairie du Sac, from 1906 to 1910, but principally from 
April 9 to June 12, 1911, while collecting material for nesting 
groups of birds for the Milwaukee Public Museum, and also from 
May 25 to July 4, 1913, while engaged on similar work for the 
N. W. Harris Public School Extension of the Field Museum, 
Chicago. 
The region under consideration includes the Township of Sump- 
ter, Honey Creek, and Prairie du Sac, in Sauk County, and that 
part of the Township at Mazomanie, Dane County, that borders 
on the Wisconsin River. Particular attention was paid to the 
Baraboo Bluffs, a very rough, and in most places heavily wooded, 
range of hills of great interest to the Geologist and bird lover. 
As this region is in most sections rather difficult to transverse even 
on foot, owing to the lavish hand with which Nature has scattered 
quartzite boulders of all sizes and shapes over the landscape, it still 
retains much of its natural wildness and beauty, and is the home of 
numerous species of birds and mammals not found in the surround- 
ing country. Virginia Deer are at the present time very numerous, 
and hawks and owls, Ruffed Grouse, and many species of warblers 
make this region their summer home. Brook trout are also 
found in Otter Creek, which finds its source in the numerous springs. 
Considerable time was also spent in the bottom lands of the Wis- 
consin River in the few remaining patches of heavy timber. Since 
these notes were made, the character of the river has been greatly 
changed for a considerable distance above Prairie du Sac by the 
great power dam, recently erected at that town, and the newly 
formed Lake Wisconsin ought to prove a great attraction for numer- 
ous species of water birds. 
1. Colymbus nigricollis californicus. AMERICAN EARED GREBE.— 
Five of these Grebe were killed out of a flock of six, on the Wisconsin River, 
a few miles north of Prairie du Sac, April 30, 1909, by a hunter who gave 
