214 Trans. Acad. Set. of St. Louis. 



covered in summer and fall with a profusion of bright flowers, 

 nigger-heads, asters, goldenrod and blazing star. If these so- 

 called barrens are extensive, they are covered with thickets of 

 plum, wild crab and buckthorn, the favorite home of Bell's 

 Vireo. Where the soil becomes deeper and the prairie begins, 

 man has for the most part taken possession, and turned the stiff 

 prairie grass under, and is now raising wheat, clover, alfalfa 

 and grass. The Prairie Homed Lark, the Mourning Dove, and 

 the Dickcissel are the birds of the wheat fields. On the farm- 

 steads themselves and in the windbreaks of soft maple that sur- 

 round them, breed the birds which the farmer boy knows best, 

 the Wren, the Kingbird, the Purple Martin, the Bluebird, and 

 the rest of the well known list. In the osage orange hedges that 

 divide the upland fields, Shrikes nest and many migrant birds 

 find shelter. 



The river, as it sweeps past on its way to the Gulf, has of- 

 fered for untold centuries a highway for the many species that 

 breed in northern latitudes. The House Wrens and Orchard 

 Orioles of Nebraska rest in early May in the willows along its 

 bars, the Purple Finches and Siskins on their way south in the 

 fall, feed on the "buttons" of the sycamores. But to the real 

 river-man, who has watched for many years the floods make and 

 remake the ever-shifting shores, the flight of birds suggests the 

 great waves of ducks and geese that rest on the sandbars, or in 

 the swift current itself, or the "Snipe," the Sandpipers or 

 Plover that feed on the exposed flats or wheel with shrill pip- 

 ings over the muddy water. With these birds are associated 

 all the other waterfowl less important to the sportsman, but 

 often coming within his ken, the majestic Pelican, the Grebe, the 

 Coot and the Herons. 



The city itself has destroyed many former breeding places of 

 the birds, but in the residence section the planting of trees and 

 shrubs has attracted those species that adapt themselves to the 

 neigh'borhood of man. The Brown Thrashers and Catbirds 

 nest in the shrubbery, Orioles and Robins in the elms, Blue- 

 birds, Wrens and Martins in the boxes now so generally put up. 

 The Chimney Swift is still seen over the mass of stone and con- 

 crete that covers the downtown section of the city. 



During migration many of the smaller birds pass through the 

 tree tops in the residence sections of the city, or hide by day in 



