12 BIRDS OF ARKANSAS. 



he was primarily a botanist and his account of the trip, while abound- 

 ing in interesting descriptions and valuable plant notes, contains 

 only casual allusions to the birds seen along the route. 



In 1820 Maj. Long's exploring party, on its return from the Rocky 

 Mountains, crossed the State from Fort Smith to Little Eock and 

 thence overland to Cape Girardeau, Mo., but with one or two excep- 

 tions the published account of the expedition contains no reference 

 to Arkansas birds. 



Several of the later Government exploring expeditions to the 

 Western States made Fort Smith their point of departure, but on 

 account of the location of that place so near the western boundary 

 of the State practically no observations were made until the explor- 

 ing parties had crossed into what is now Oklahoma. 



The ornithology of Arkansas remained practically unknown until 

 the later years of the last century. Frequent references to the birds 

 of the State, chiefly game birds, are found in the pages of Forest 

 and Stream and American Field, and occasional short articles have 

 appeared in the Auk and other natural history magazines, but only 

 three local lists treating of Arkansas birds have been published. 

 The first of these is a brief account by H. S. Reynolds of 29 species 

 observed in White County in the winter of 1876-77. 1 In the summer 

 of 1881 O. P. Hay made a few observations near Hopefield, on the 

 Mississippi River, and in a list, published the following year, recorded 

 29 species from the State. 2 In 1902 N. Hollister published a list of 

 51 species of winter birds, which he observed in 1899 and 1900, 

 chiefly on the Grand Prairie of Arkansas County. 3 This paper sup- 

 plied four additions to the State list and many valuable distribution 

 notes. 



When Prof. W. W. Cooke began the study of bird migration in 

 the Mississippi Valley, in 1882, only a single observer, Prof. F. L. 

 Harvey, of Fayetteville, was found in Arkansas to contribute notes. 

 In 1884 one more observer, W. A. Monroe, of Newport, was added 

 to the force, and in 1889 and 1890 C. E. Pleas, of Clinton, furnished 

 valuable notes on the birds of the mountain region near that place. 

 Some of the data furnished by these observers were published in 

 Prof. Cooke's Report on Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley. 4 

 As early as 1886 Mrs. L. M. Stephenson, of Helena, began to record 

 observations on the birds of that locality, and from 1894 to the 

 present date she has furnished each year to the Biological Survey 

 detailed notes on migration. The data supplied by this series of 

 observations have proved of the greatest value in the preparation of 

 the present report, furnishing many new records and the most im- 

 portant migration dates at present available. 



i Amer. Nat., XI, pp. 307-308, 1877. 



2 Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, VII, pp. 89-94, 1882. 



s Wilson Bull., IX, pp. 10-15, 1902. 



« Bull. 2, Div. Econ. Ornith. [Biol. Surv.], U. S. Dept. Agric, 1888. 



