370 Roberts, A Lapland Longspur Tragedy. [ol't* 



and some of the questions involved, may prove interesting even if 

 it be possessed of no very great intrinsic value. 



About the middle of March, 1 ( J()4, there appeared in the daily 

 papers of several Minnesota cities and villages brief telegraphic 

 statements of the destruction of large numbers of a small brown 

 bird during the night of March 13-14 in and about the villages of 

 Worthington and Slayton in southwestern Minnesota, well out in 

 (lie prairie portion of the State. A day or two later several of the 

 dead birds were sent by a physician of Slayton to the State Uni- 

 versity at Minneapolis, and were referred to the writer for identi- 

 fication. They proved to be Lapland Longspurs (Calcarius 

 lapponicus). Nearly a week had now elapsed, but as it was learned 

 by telephoning to one of the towns in question that the accounts 

 were not unfounded or exaggerated and that abundant evidence 

 of the bird destruction still remained, Dr. L. (). Dart was sent as a 

 representative of the State Natural History Survey to gather all 

 possible data bearing upon the event, and it is from the information 

 secured by him that this account is prepared. 



Dr. Dart went first to Worthington and Slayton, the two places 

 where the birds were killed in greatest numbers, and there made 

 careful personal examination into the then existing conditions by 

 studying the numbers and distribution of the dead birds and the 

 post mortem findings; and also had a series of interviews with 

 various residents who had been eye-witnesses of the event. A 

 less thorough examination was made at several other places. A 

 few days later letters of inquiry were addressed to the postmasters 

 at some twenty-three villages in southwestern Minnesota, north- 

 western Iowa and southeastern South Dakota in an attempt to 

 secure further information that might give some definite idea of the 

 extent of the area of destruction. Ten replies were received to 

 these letters. Most of the citizens in the towns where the birds 

 were killed had been so impressed by the extent and unusual char- 

 acter of the phenomenon that they were ready and indeed eager 

 to give their experiences and to get any expression of opinion as to 

 the causes of what was locally called "the great bird shower." 



Beginning his observations at Worthington, the county seat of 

 Noble County, on March 22, eight days after the Longspurs were 

 destroyed, Dr. Dart found large numbers of dead birds in all the 



