Birds of Prairie Regions 9 



Circus hudsonius — Marsh Hawk. One flushed from one of the 

 ponds near Charleston on October 30, 1912. 



Junco hyemalis liyenialis — Slate-colored Junco. Many close to 

 one of the ponds in a hedge fence. 



Geothlypis trichas trichas — Maryland Yellow-throat. Frequently 

 heard about these prairie ponds. 



The observations recorded in this paper were obtained dur- 

 ing about a dozen short visits to these prairie ponds, and ;t 

 is hoped that they are adequate to give those unfamiHar with 

 these habitats a general idea of their bird life and to stimu- 

 late field work in these regions by those who find them acces- 

 sible, for they constitute a type of habitat that is rapidly dis- 

 appearing. In the Charleston region, one was destroyed dur- 

 ing the last few months, and corn was raised this last summer 

 where it existed. Many of the trees and bushes have been 

 cut from the others and the grass zones much narrowed on 

 account of their being dry during ploughing time this last 

 spring. 



It is regrettable that there were not bird students among 

 the pioneers of the prairie region of the Central United States, 

 who studied the birds of the old and extensive prairie ponds 

 or sloughs, not only in a faunistic way, but in an ecological 

 way, describing in detail the bird habitats and the relation of 

 the birds to the various features in them, and who recorded 

 these observations in scientific publications. The only litera- 

 ture the writer has yet been able to find on the old prairie 

 region near Charleston is in a popular account of the History 

 of Coles County. Illinois, by C. E. Wilson.^ He tells of many 

 sloughs found in the region just north of Charleston about 

 1861, some of which were a quarter of a mile across, with 

 water three to five feet in depth. Brief references to their 

 plant life make it appear that they had vegetal features quite 

 similar to their small remnants, but the fauna of the old prai- 

 ries certainly was very different from these little areas with 

 similar vegetal and hydrographic conditions that we now find. 

 He writes of "migratory water fowl" that came in "count- 

 ^ Munsell Publishing Co., Chicago. 



