56 
BIENNAL REPORT 
THE WATER BIRDS OF MINNESOTA : PAST AND PRESENT. 
By Thomas S. Roberts, M. D. 
Curator of the Zoological Museum, University of Minnesota. 
A RETROSPECT. 
When the region that is now included within the boundaries of the state of 
Minnesota was first invaded by white men the wild-life conditions were vastly 
different from those that exist at the present time. The earlier explorers found great 
herds of Buffalo and Elk grazing along the bluffs of the Mississippi River, Deer 
filled the woodlands, Beaver abounded in all the streams and lakes and the 
primeval forests of the north sheltered great numbers of Moose, Caribou, Black 
Bear and other mammals that are now little more than a tradition. The diversi¬ 
fied and fertile uplands and the equally varied and bountiful waters supported 
a bird population that astonished and tested the descriptive powers of the early 
narrators. Ducks of many species bred in vast numbers and rose in dense clouds 
before the voyageurs’ canoes. The honk of the Canada Goose resounded far 
and wide throughout the summer months and legions of Wavies, Speckle-bellies 
and Blue Geese passed to and fro spring and fall. The prairies in the nesting 
season were alive with Upland Plover, great Sickle-billed Curlews, Willets, the 
beautiful Avocet and countless thousands of great, noisy Marbled Godwits; while 
as migrants came an innumerable host of other shore birds, conspicuous among 
which were great flocks of Golden and Black-bellied Plovers and Eskimo Curlews. 
About the margins of the many shallow lakes, majestic Trumpeter Swans reared 
their young and big flocks of Whistling Swans settled on the open waters to rest 
and feed on their long flights to and from the far Northland. Great snow white 
Whooping Cranes and thousands of the more sombre hued Sandhill Cranes built 
their huge nests in the marshes, paraded and danced in stately fashion on the prairie 
upland or trumpeted loudly from on high. Vast flocks of Passenger Pigeons ob¬ 
scured the sun and filled the woodlands with their noisy roostings and their eager 
scramble for the fallen acorns. 
If reports are true the whistle of the Bob-white was a rare sound in those 
early days but the Sharp-tailed or White-breasted Grouse—the Prairie Chicken 
of all this region at that time—abounded in the open country and the “drum¬ 
ming” of the Ruffed Grouse echoed everywhere through the woodlands. The 
“booming” of the Pinnated Grouse came later with the advent of the settlers’ 
grainfields and followed the Sharp-tails as they retreated westward and north¬ 
westward before the advancing harvest that had lured the Prairie Hen from its 
original home on the great prairies of the Middle States. 
Hawks and Owls, Eagles and Vultures were then far more abundant than 
now and performed unmolested the role for which they were created, of main¬ 
taining the natural balance and well being of the animal hosts among which they 
lived. 
Of the long list of insectivorous and seed-eating birds that go to make up the 
great bulk of our avian population, only a few have survived in their formei 
abundance and still fewer have been able so to adapt themselves to altered condi¬ 
tions that they have actually increased in numbers. The latter group comprises 
