12 BULLETIN 794, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
The mammals of this region are the characteristic species of the 
Great Plains. On the upland there are numerous coyotes, thirteen- 
lined ground squirrels, Kennicott ground squirrels, white-tailed 
jack rabbits, prairie dogs, badgers, pocket gophers, and long-tailed 
skunks. About some of the rivers and lakes there are still beavers 
and a good many minks and raccoons, while apparently the most 
abundant mammal of the lakes is the muskrat, for its houses are to 
be seen on almost every permanent body of water. The American 
antelope, which formerly was abundant in this region, is now rare, 
though occasionally seen. 
The birds of the sandhill region, other than the waterfowl which 
will be separately and specially treated in the present bulletin, 
though not of a great many species, are yet fairly numerous. Among 
the land birds the most conspicuous inhabitants of the reeds and 
rushes in the marshes about the lakes are the red- winged and yellow- 
headed blackbirds, while an occasional long-billed marsh wren chat- 
ters away from his hiding place among the rank vegetation. In 
the thickets bordering the lakes and some of the streams the Bell 
vireo, yellow warbler, and Maryland yellowthroat are to be found. 
The eastern meadowlark is unusually abundant in most of the valley 
meadows, while the western meadowlark is equally numerous on the 
higher lands, though both often occur on the same ground. The 
eastern meadowlark was traced as far west as Phalarope Lake, in 
northwestern Garden County, where several individuals were seen 
and heard on June 22, 1915; and the Hague Lakes, just south of 
Rush Lake, in northeastern Morrill County, where it was noted as 
common on June 21. The melodious song of the bobolink may be 
heard throughout the summer in many of the meadows. Prairie chick- 
ens and sharp-tailed grouse are common almost everywhere, both in 
the sandhills and in the grassy valleys : but the bob-white is every- 
where rare. The kingbird and the barn swallow are found about 
almost all the rather scattered ranches of the region, while the orchard 
oriole and warbling vireo inhabit less regularly the trees and groves 
in the same places. The grassy sandhills are almost everywhere 
inhabited commonly by the vesper and grasshopper sparrows, while 
the lark bunting, conspicuous by its black and white plumage and 
marvelous mockingbird-like song, may be seen all over the plains and 
sandhills. Other common birds of general distribution are the 
mourning dove, the nighthawk. the horned lark, and the cowbird, 
and in almost every prairie-dog town the curious-mannered burrow- 
ing owl. 
LAKES OF EASTERN CHERRY COUNTY. 
In the central eastern portion of Cherry County lies a group of 
about 65 lakes covering an area about 35 miles square. In the middle 
where the lakes are closest together they are in some cases only a 
