THE STORY OF THREE WESTERN BIRD GROUPS 

 INTRODUCTORY 



For the collecting season of 1906, 1 planned an itinerary, 

 which beginning in early May in Nebraska, led successively 

 to Arizona, Wyoming, California and Oregon. The work 

 accomplished in the two latter states is described in the 

 chapter on California birddife, and I wish to relate here 

 briefly the facts connected with the securing of material for 

 a Prairie Hen group in Nebraska, a cactus desert birddife 

 group near Tucson, and a Golden Eagle group in Wyoming. 



I confess that these three chapters are inspired by a de- 

 sire to present a complete history of the collecting of the 

 "Habitat Groups," rather than by the necessity of record- 

 ing anything I may have learned of the region, or its birds, 

 in which the three groups were secured. To travel 13,000 

 miles in three months does not permit one to linger at any/ 

 one locality and, as soon as the collections were made for 

 one group, we hastened toward the next. 



I was accompanied in Nebraska and Arizona by Bruce 

 Horsfall, artist, and J. D. Figgins, of the Museum staff, 

 preparateur. May 1, we reached Lincoln, Nebraska, 

 whither we had gone to confer with Prof. Lawrence Bruner, 

 in regard to a favorable locality for Prairie Hens and to ob- 

 tain a permit from the State Game Warden to collect the 

 specimens needed. 



The same evening, accompanied by Professor Bruner, 

 we left for Halsey, in the sand-hills of the central part of 

 the state, where we became the guests of the Forest Reser- 

 vation Station. 



We left Halsey May 6, going to Denver by way of Alli- 

 ance, and continuing our journey thence to Pueblo, the 



