REV. GEO. B. PRATT. 



73 



AMATEUR ORNITHOLOGY. 



BY REV. GEO. B. PRATT, CHICAGO. 



In the year 1883 I began, my ornithological work, with 

 special attention to the migration of birds in the valley of 

 the Mississippi River at Hastings, Minn., about 20 miles 

 south of St. Paul. The first spring arrivals of birds as in- 

 dividuals, then in collective bodies, were my especial duties 

 of observation. I had previously seen in the St. Paul 

 Pioneer Press an advertisement, or more properly a call, by 

 Prof. W. W.Cooke, then living in Wisconsin, for observers in 

 the valley of the Mississippi. My first thought was, " Why ! 

 you don't know anything about birds. Why take this up ? 

 You have had no experience." The idea was attractive and 

 worked upon me considerably ; so I finally decided, and 

 wrote to Prof. Cooke that I would take the job for that local- 

 ity. I am reminded now, when thinking of my ignorance at 

 that time (and let me say that much of that ignorance has 

 never ceased) of the man who was asked to teach a class in 

 zoology at a private school, and who agreed to do it ; and 

 then went home and hunted in his dictionary to see what 

 the word "zoology" meant, 



I kept up the work, along with others whom I occasion- 

 ally met in Red Wing and Lake City, towns on the river, 

 until Prof. Cooke finished the object he had in view, for 

 which I had sent him semi-annual reports ; after which I 

 transferred my reports to the Smithsonian Institution at 

 Washington. In 1885, I removed to Oak Park, 111. Since 

 that time, with the exception of two or three years past, I have 



