2^6 Agersborg on Birds of Southeastern Dakota. LJu'y 



Iris light brick red; upper mandible black ; lower mandible 

 blue ; edges and tip of both whitish ; legs, feet, and claws deep 

 blue. 



I found Passerina ciris also quite a common summer resident 

 in the same vicinity and localities. The birds were very shy. 

 I succeeded, however, in shooting a pair. Their sweet song 

 greeted me along the streams and in nearly every ravine or canon 

 that 1 entered. 



THE BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN DAKOTA. 



BY G. S. AGERSBORG.* 



Clay County, and also parts of Union and Yankton Counties. 

 have been thoroughly searched by the writer for the last sixteen 

 years, especially Clay ; also parts of Lincoln and Minnehaha 

 Counties, with an occasional trip further north. The topography 

 of this part of the country is not very varied, being mainly high, 

 undulating prairie, and low, often marshy, bottom lands. The 

 counties are bordered on the south by the Missouri River, and 

 traversed from north to south by the Big Sioux, Vermilion and 

 Dakota Rivers. It is essentially a prairie country, there being 

 very little timber except along the Missouri, and at different places 

 on the Big Sioux. We find no true lakes, but a number of reedy 

 swamps, which are the resort of myriads of water birds during 

 the migrations. Collecting trips have also been extended to 

 Cedar and Dixon Counties in Nebraska, separated from Dakota 

 by the Missouri River. The topography of these counties differs 

 somewhat from that of Southeastern Dakota, the land being 

 higher, drier, better timbered, and more broken by deep ravines. 

 The avifauna is the same, but many of our Dakota birds, as 

 Swainson's Buzzard, the Turkey Buzzard, and the Swallow-tailed 

 Kite find there better breeding resorts, and consequently are there 

 more abundant. 



Several birds given by Professor Aughey in his 'Report on the 

 Nature of the Food of the Birds of Nebraska,' which I have failed 



* Revised bv Prof. W. W. Cooke. 



