6 THE FAUNA OF THE PRAIRIES. 
of the most characteristic and most numerous species of the 
prairies. The peculiar habits of the three last named render them 
also among the most interesting. 
The Bird fauna of the prairies presents peculiarities similar to 
the mammalian. Whilst nearly all the birds of eastern North 
America occur here,* most of the woodland species exist only as 
either sparse residents or casual visitors during their migrations, 
a few either wholly western or strictly prairie species, making up 
the bulk of the summer residents. The narrow timber belts that 
intersect the prairies are hence in summer comparatively quiet 
and tenantless. Even such widely distributed and generally abun- 
dant species as the robin, the blue bird and the chipping and song 
sparrows, are rarely met with in the breeding season in the unset- 
tled districts. The swallows are also rare, as are all the species 
that depend upon, forest shelter for nesting places. The field 
sparrows of the East, as the Yellow-winged (Coturniculus passer- 
inus Bon.), the Field (Spizella pusilla Bon.), the Bay-winged (Pæce- 
tes gramineus Baird), and the Savanna (Passerculus savanna), and 
especially the Black-throated Bunting (Euspiza Americana Bon.), 
and the Western Lark Finch (Chondestes grammaca Bon.), are char- 
acteristic and predominant kinds which almost alone enliven the 
broad stretches of the wild prairie. Not less characteristic than 
either, however, are the Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris), and 
the Meadow Starling (Sturnella Ludoviciana Swain.), whose song 
is here wilder and far more musical than at the East. Of the 
blackbirds inhabiting the grassy marshes, one, the Yellow-headed 
Troupial (Xanthocephalus icterocephalus Baird), is also strictly a 
bird of the prairies. 
Other birds not usually common at the East are the Cerulean 
“Warbler (Dendreeca coerulea Bd.), perhaps the most common 
warbler of the prairie woodlands, and the beautiful Swallow- 
tailed Kite (Nauclerus furcatus Vigors), whose graceful flight and 
elegant form one never tires of watching as it skims over the prai- 
ries in search of its reptile food. The Prairie Hen forms the chief 
game bird, and is nowhere else so thoroughly at home. The slug- 
gish Turkey Buzzard (Cathartes aura Ill.) is also conspicuous 
here, and the Sand-hill Crane is also more or less frequent. 
: c 
i the writer’s lists of the summer birds of Western Iowa and Northern Illinois, 
published in the Memoirs of the Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. I, pp. 493-503 
; A ; 
Also a nominal list of the birds of Iowa, in th : 
e Report of the Geolo; that 
, Vol. II, Appendix, January, 1871, Repo gical Survey of tha 
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