70 The Wilson Bulletin— No. 95 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NEBRASKA ORNI- 

 THOLOGISTS' UNION. 



BY MYRON H. SWENK. 



It is fitting" at this time, when an affiliation between the Ne- 

 braska Ornitholog"ists' Union and the Wilson Ornithological 

 Club has just been consummated, that a brief historical sum- 

 mary of the former organization be presented to the readers 

 of the Wilson Bulletin. The writer will, therefore, attempt 

 to briefly sketch the circumstances which brought about the 

 organization of the N. O. U., and some of the subsequent 

 activities of that society. 



Following the pioneer work with Nebraska birds, which 

 began in 1804 and 1806 with the voyage of Lewis and Clarke 

 up and down the Missouri River, followed by the observa- 

 tions of Thomas Say in 1819 and 1820, of Maxmilian in 1833 

 and 1834, of Townsend and Nuttall in 1834 and ending 

 with those of Audubon in 1843, there was a hiatus in 

 ornithological activity in Nebraska until the work of Pro- 

 fessor Samuel Aughey of the University of Nebraska, from 

 1864 to 1887, enabled the publication in 1878 of the first 

 state list of Nebraska birds, in which 252 kinds were enu- 

 merated. During this same period of yearS Professor 

 Lawrence Bruner , first as a boy at Omaha and later a 

 young man at West Point, was also observing the birds in 

 Nebraska, and when he later became associated with the Uni- 

 versity in 1888 he was in an even better position to gather 

 information along this line. Consequently, in 1896 appeared 

 his "' Notes on Nebraska Birds," in which he listed some 400 

 kinds and summarized not only his information based on per- 

 sonal observation, but that generously furnished him by sev- 

 eral other ornithological workers in Nebraska during the 80's 

 and 90's, notably Messrs. I. S. Trostler, J. M. Bates, L. Skow, 

 D. H. Talbot, and others. This work at once stimulated a 

 great general interest in Nebraska birds, and the demand for 

 it was so heavy that it was soon entirely out of print. 



A year or two prior to the appearance of Prof. Bruner's 



