22 



THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



A TYPICAL DUNE LANDSCAPE 



year: A. F. Knotts, T. R. Cannon, Mrs. Frank Sheehan, J. O. Bowers, 

 G. Pinneo, Gary ; Dr. Stoltz, South Bend ; Prof. Bennett, Valparaiso ; 

 T. W. Allinson, Dr. H. C. Cowles, D. W. Roper, Jens Jensen, E. L. Mil- 

 lard, C. A. Mitchell, Z. Baber, and E. M. Winston, Illinois. 



Mr. O. M. Schantz represented The Illinois Audubon Society at the 

 hearing. A portion of his address is herewith appended. 



Birds and the Dunes 



The Mississippi Valley each spring and autumn, is the favorite route 

 for the migration of countless thousands of both land and water birds. 

 Probably nowhere on the North American continent does there take place 

 a greater movement of bird life than in the region tributary to the Dunes. 

 Thirty years ago, when the region south and east of the City of Chicago 

 was still a vast uncommercialized and uninhabited area, this region was a 

 paradise for the sportsman and market hunter. Calumet Lake, Wolf Lake, 

 the Big Calumet and the Little Calumet rivers and all the streams and 

 ponds of the region were alive with waterfowl. 



Today much of this wonderful bird life is gone never to return and 

 where once could be seen thousands of ducks, geese and other waterfowl, 

 small flocks of game birds are a novel sight. While the larger land birds 

 have never been in as great numbers as the water birds they were once very 

 plentiful in the Dune region and its outskirts. Ruffed grouse, quail and 

 prairie chicken have been driven out by the ruthless hunter. 



Nature has been very kind to the Dunes in providing a peculiarly favor- 

 able climate for the propagation of both plant and bird life. The tempera- 

 tures are never extreme either summer or winter, and except on the exposed 

 lake beach the winds are also moderate. 



The abundance of fruit-bearing plants in the Dunes makes them par- 

 ticularly attractive to the thousands of the smaller migratory birds that are 

 so important a factor in the destruction of injurious insects. The Depart- 



