130 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 96 



PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE BIRDS OF FLOYD 

 COUNTY, IOWA. 



CARROLL LANE FENTON, CHARLES CITY, IOWA. 



The county in which these observations were made is lo- 

 cated in the north central portion of Iowa, and might be 

 taken as a type of the " lowan plain," and is in reality typical 

 of the counties lying in that belt which Mc Gee classes as 

 the "Rolling lowan" prairies. It possesses but few really 

 large wooded areas, the largest in the county being about fif- 

 teen hundred acres in extent, and not particularly rich in bird 

 life. The country is well cultivated ; the banks of the streams 

 low, with none of the miniature " badlands " found in south- 

 ern and western Iowa ; and the whole area one which would 

 present but average attractions for birds, and if compared 

 with some of the districts along the Mississippi, it is very 

 unfavorable. 



Notwithstanding this, the list of birds found within the 

 county during 1914, 1915, and the portion of 1916 which has 

 elapsed, shows a large number of species, some of which are 

 so rare as to deserve special mentiol. 



The following list is a compilation, largely from lists given 

 in the first Annual Report, and Bulletin No. 1 of the Cali- 

 for^ Naturalist Club ; notes given in the " History of 

 Floyd County " by Clement L. Webster, M.Sc. ; private lists, 

 and state lists. It represents observations covering a period 

 of more than fifty years, and gives what is probably an al- 

 most complete list of the birds noted in the county during 

 that time. Some are omitted, for lack of reliable data, which 

 probably occur in Floyd county, or at' least may have oc- 

 curred here. The larger portion of the data, however, has been 

 collected in the years 1913-1916, including the past months 

 of the latter year. The bird life of Floyd county was once 

 really rich, both in species and in numbers. Ducks, grebes, 

 loons, and geese nested within the county and the gallina- 

 ceous birds were common. All this is now changed. Tiling 

 had destroyed the marshes, and promiscuous shooting has 



