242 Cameron, Birds of Custer & Davenport Counties, Mont. [xuW 



presently appear, only two of these divisions deserve recognition, 

 viz. : the pine hills and the prairie. The same physical conforma- 

 tion prevails throughout the country and may be described as a 

 succession of high divides clothed with pines, which slope, more 

 or less gradually, to large rivers. 



Most of the intermediate country consists of rolling prairie, 

 intersected by creeks fringed, as are the rivers, with cottonwoods, 

 here and there relieved by a sprinkling of ash, box elder, and 

 willow. In certain districts, however, irreclaimable badlands ex- 

 tend from the top of the divides downwards to the rivers, the most 

 important tract in our area being that known as the Missouri 

 Brakes on the river of the same name, to which I shall again refer. 

 There are no mountains, properly so called, in either county, but 

 Mountain Sheep Bluffs in Dawson County (the greater part of 

 which is still unsurveyed), rise to 4,000 feet above sea level, and 

 Glendive, the capital, has an elevation of 2,091 feet; while Max- 

 well Butte, on Mispah Creek, in Custer County, is 3,261 feet 

 above sea level, and Miles City, the capital, 2,334 feet. Nor are 

 there any lakes, properly so called, but the abundant rains of 

 certain years form prairie ponds, often several acres in extent, 

 which afford grateful resting-places to passing wild-fowl. Forks 

 Lake, containing about 160 acres, on a fork of the Redwater 

 River (north Dawson County) never becomes entirely dry. The 

 total area of Custer County is 9,368,000 acres, or 14,637 square 

 miles, and that of Dawson County is 13,2S0 square miles. 



Owing to the fact that badlands are generally adjacent to pine 

 hills, and often themselves conceal in their ravines and gulches a 

 thick growth of pines and cedars, the avifauna of the two districts 

 overlaps and is in most respects identical. The same remark 

 applies to the prairie and river-valley regions, for the species 

 frequenting the river bottom ascend the tributary creeks to the 

 plains, and wherever the latter rise into pine hills which enclose 

 wide parks, as in the neighborhood of Knowlton, there will 

 prairie birds, like Curlews and Bartramian Sandpipers, be found 

 nesting. 



A few species, such as the Mourning Dove, Nighthawk, Arkan- 

 sas Kingbird, Horned Lark, Meadowlark, Redpoll, Lark Sparrow, 

 etc., are ubiquitous. Hence it is clear that faunal areas, in the 



