1882 .] 
397 
[Hoffman. 
LIST OF BIRDS OBSERVED AT FT. BERTHOLD, D. T., 
DURiNG THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER, 1881. 
BY W. J. HOFFMAN, M.D. 
The Indian village known as Ft. Berthold, is located on the 
north, or left bank of the Missouri River, about ninety-five miles 
above Bismarck, the principal town on the Northern Pacific Rail- 
road, in northern Dakota. Immediately above and below the 
village are extensive bottom-lands, covered with an indifferent 
growth of willows and young cottonwoods. The point of land 
upon which the village is located forms the southern extremity of 
the second terrace or “ bench,” which extends back toward the 
bluffs of the prairie proper for a distance of two miles or more. 
This terrace is perfectly flat and is covered with a dense growth 
of flowering vegetation, interspersed with patches of grass. The 
eastern portion of this plain has been successfully worked by the 
Indians and agency employes, yielding very good crops of corn, 
wheat and oats, and it is over this portion of the region where 
the greater number of birds congregate during the day. 
The geographic position of Ft. Berthold is, approximately, in 
latitude 47° 35' N., and longitude 101° 35' W. On account of the 
treeless prairie to the northward, but few spebies of birds are 
found at any great distance from the river bottoms at this season 
of the year ; many of the summer residents having either 
departed, or collected in the vicinity of the more sheltered areas 
just previous to their autumn migration, and the weather being 
not yet sufficiently cold to bring the winter visitors southward. 
The temperature ranges between 105° and - 40°, although 
last winter (1880-81) the thermometer at one time indicated 56° 
below zero. During the middle of the present September the 
thermometer indicated 24° once, 25°, 26° and 30° quite frequently 
in the morning, though rising to 53° during the day. 1 
As the visit to this region was made for the purpose of studying 
the Hidatsa, Mandan and Ankara Indians, the list of birds is not 
so extended as it might be had there been more time at the dis- 
1 In a letter just received from Ft. Berthold I am informed that the temperature had 
fallen to -26° on Nov. 17th. 
