222 Trotter, Land-Bird Fauna of X. E. America. [july 



The present paper is the outcome of an article previously pub- 

 lished by the writer in 'The Popular Science Monthly' 1 which 

 dealt with the effect of the settlement of the country upon the dis- 

 tribution of bird life, what we might term the bird life under abo- 

 riginal conditions as compared with its present aspects. The 

 problem as stated in that article was this: If eastern North 

 America was in the main a forest-covered land, as both historical 

 narrative and existing physical conditions indicate, what was the 

 status of the bird life that now inhabits our open fields and grass 

 country? Have certain birds altered their habits or their habitats'? 

 Facts seem to point to the last named of the two alternatives as 

 offering the mostly likely solution to the problem since most of our 

 grass-frequenting species are of wide distribution toward the west, 

 throughout the prairie region, and many of them are represented 

 by geographical races on the Great Plains. Such species as the 

 Vesper Sparrow or Grass Finch, the Savannah and Grasshopper 

 Sparrows, the Meadowlark, Bobolink, and Red-winged Black- 

 bird, the Killdeer and Grass Plover were cited in illustration, and 

 I stated my belief that these birds had found their way into the 

 newly opened lands from the western prairie region. An exception 

 might be made in certain species — that of the Bobolink which 

 may have frequented the river marshes, and also in the case of the 

 Savannah Sparrow which appears to be a coastwise bird, dwelling 

 along the edge of the maritime marshes, though its present habitat 

 may be a comparatively recent occupancy. The Black- throated 

 Bunting or Dickcissel was cited as a remarkable case of recession 

 from its one time habitat in certain eastern localities during the 

 latter half of the nineteenth century, and there is good evidence for 

 believing that this bird was originally an invader from the prairie 

 region. Its great abundance in the grass country of the Middle 

 West and its rather limited distribution in the East, coupled with 

 its somewhat abrupt disappearance from the last named region, 

 certainly point to this conclusion. Audubon speaks of its abun- 

 dance in the prairie lands of Texas, Missouri and Illinois as com- 

 pared with the middle Atlantic districts and that it was "rarer in 

 Ohio, and scarce in Kentucky," which is good evidence, for at the 



*' Birds of the Grasslands.' The Popular Science Monthly, Vol. XLII, p. 4.53, 

 February, 1893. 



