BIRDS OF ARKANSAS. 



INTBODUCTION. 



Arkansas, although long known as a paradise for sportsmen, has 

 been strangely neglected by ornithologists. No detailed study of 

 the avifauna of the State has hitherto been made and very little 

 on its animal hfe has been published. In mapping the life zones 

 of the Mississippi Valley the Biological Survey has been hampered 

 by the lack of definite information on the distribution of birds in 

 Arkansas, and in order to obtain the data necessary to complete its 

 maps it was found necessary to make a special investigation of the 

 birds of the State and to compile the published records. 



Arkansas is remarkable for the abundance and variety of its bird 

 life, and many interesting problems of distribution are presented as a 

 result of its topography and geographical position. Situated in the 

 heart of the Mississippi Valley, it forms part of the great highway of 

 migration for a large majority of the birds of passage which summer 

 in the Northern States and Canada, while it affords a congenial win- 

 ter resort for myriads of waterfowl and great numbers of the smaller 

 land birds driven south by the severity of more northern climes. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES. 



The most prominent topographic features of the State are the 

 bottom lands of the Mississippi Basin, in which are included the 

 famous Sunken Lands, the Ozark Plateau of the northwest, and the 

 group of more or less isolated mountain ranges south of the Arkansas 

 River sometimes referred to collectively as the Ouachita Mountains. 



THE MISSISSIPPI BOTTOM LANDS. 



The so-called Sunken Lands are extensive areas of swamp and 

 overflowed bottom land occupying a large part of Mississippi County 

 and portions of Clay, Greene, Craighead, and Poinsett Counties. 

 The largest of these sunken areas are Big Lake and the broad basin 

 of the St. Francis River, but there are many smaller lakes and 

 sloughs in Mississippi County between Little River and the Missis- 

 sippi. Many of these lakes, including Big Lake (also Reelfoot Lake, 

 in Tennessee), were formed by the disturbances of the land accom- 

 panying the great earthquakes of 1811-1813, usually referred to as 

 the New Madrid earthquake. At that time large forests were 

 prostrated, immense fissures were formed, and profound changes 



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