562 YisiiER. Birds of Sanborn County. South Dakota. Ibct" 



The following list deals with an area which lies some fifty miles 

 west of midway between the above mentioned regions. It is 

 based on observations of the writer during the past fifteen years. 



Sanborn County is located in the southeastern corner of central 

 South Dakota. The Dakota or James river bisects it from north 

 to south. It is a glaciated region, and in the main, a level plain 

 except for the channel of the river and the main creeks. The rest 

 of the area is poorly or not at all drained. There are hundreds 

 of lake beds which contain water at certain seasons or throughout 

 the year in wet periods. The largest and most permanent of these 

 are Calahan Lake, twelve miles northeast of Forestburg, Kelley's 

 Lake, five miles east of Forestburg, Artesian Lake, near the town of 

 Artesian, Letcher Lake, near the town of Letcher, and Visher's 

 Lake, near Forestburg. Long Lake, some five miles southwest 

 of Forestburg, formerly was a great expanse of water. It has now 

 been drained. None of these contain as much as a square mile of 

 water. 



The trees of the area are found in native groves along the river 

 and the lower portions of the creeks and in small artificial groves 

 scattered over the upland. The common species are the ash, 

 elm, hackberry, boxelder, willow and cottonwood. Plum and 

 choke-cherry thickets are frequent. 



A large portion of the upland is at present cultivated, but there 

 are considerable tracts along the streams and in the sandy region 

 southwest of Forestburg which are still open. Forestburg is 

 centrally located. Artesian is eleven miles east and Woonsocket 

 is nine miles west on the C. M. & St. P. railroad. Letcher is ten 

 miles southwest on another line of the same railroad. In size, the 

 county is twenty -four miles square. The elevation of the area 

 averages 1300 feet above sea level. 



The most abundant birds of the treeless portions of the plains 

 are the Western Meadowlark, Prairie Horned Lark, Upland Plover, 

 Prairie Chicken, Marsh and Swainson's Hawks, Short-eared and 

 Burrowing Owls, Sennett's Nighthawk, Bobolink, Cowbird, Chest- 

 nut-collared Longspur, Western Vesper Sparrow, Western Grass- 

 hopper Sparrow, Dickcissel, and Lark Bunting. 



The birds most frequently found nesting in the upland are the 

 Bob-white, Western Mourning Dove, Sparrow Hawk, Flicker, 



