216 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
ished everywhere; the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Ruffed 
Grouse are gone from Western Missouri. 
On the other hand, some birds have probably increased with 
the cutting off of the timber and the cultivation of the fields. 
There are probably more Dickcissels and Prairie Horned Larks, 
more Shrikes and Bluebirds now than fifty years ago. Their 
enemies have decreased and the land suitable for breeding has 
grown more extensive. 
Very little has been previously published about the birds of 
Western Missouri. The following references form as complete 
a bibliography as the author has been able to compile: 
On June 25, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition encamped 
for the night on an island in the Missouri River near the moutk 
of a large creek called the Blue-water (now known as Big Blue 
River) and on the next evening had reached a point at the con- 
fluence of the Kansas (Kaw) where they remained for two days. 
Here they secured game in plenty, including Deer and Wild 
Turkey. On their return they passed this point on September 
15, 1806, and killed an Elk and saw many Wild Turkeys. 
Thomas Say, of the Long Expedition, made an excursion 
across Jackson County from Fort Osage (Sibley) to the Konza 
River (Kaw), leaving the fort on August 6, 1819, and rejoin- 
ing the main party on the Missouri, near the mouth of the 
Platte, about September 1. He mentions the abundance of 
game and states that here Ravens were first seen by the party- 
He adds that in this region he saw a pretty species of Sparrow 
that was altogether new to him. Reference is here made to the 
Lark Sparrow which the party had discovered a short time be 
fore further down the Missouri River at Bellefontaine. 
In the spring of 1834, Thomas Nuttall in company with Jno. 
K. Townsend passed through Jackson County on the old Inde- 
pendence- Westport Road on his way to the Pacifie Coast. Men- 
tion of this stage of the journey is made in the second edition 
of his ‘‘Manual,”’ published in 1840, where the Mourning Finck 
(now known as Harris’s Sparrow) is described and the tyP® 
locality given as ‘‘a few miles west of Independence.”’ 
Maximilian, Prince of Wied, had ascended the Missout™ 
River in 1833, and on his return the next spring, just 17 day 
after Nuttall and Townsend had left Independence, he @* 
