CHAPTER XI. 
ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF WISCONSIN BIRDS 
By F. H. Kino. 
PREFATORY LETTER. 
River Falls, Wis., Nov. 6, 1882. 
Prof. T. C. Chamberlin, 
Chief Geologist: 
Herewith I transmit, in compliance with your request, a report on the 
Economic Relations of the Birds of Wisconsin, to be published under the 
auspices of the Wisconsin Geological Survey. 
The field work, which forms the basis of this report, was commenced at your 
suggestion, as you are aware, in July, 1873, and was prosecuted, as time could be 
devoted to it, until October, 1877. The funds which could be appropriated to 
this work did not permit of the collection of materials from the various por¬ 
tions of the state, consequently the data presented were gleaned, very largely,, 
from a collection of birds obtained in Walworth, Jefferson, Green Lake, Wau¬ 
shara, Waupaca and Price counties, a territory which lies well back from. th& 
main water routes, along which the strongest currents of the stream of Purely 
migratory species are likely to be found. This fact will doubtless explain in 
part the conspicuous absence of personal observations relative to species which, 
have been reported as abundant in contiguous territory. The same conditions 
wliich circumscribed the field of observation also limited the time which could, 
be devoted to field work, to the months of July and August and the early part 
of September, and while an effort was made, with a degree of success, to secure 
specimens at other times of the year, yet the report has lost, in a measure, that 
roundness and fullness which could have been desired. 
The facts recorded in the report were obtained from an examination of the 
contents of the stomachs of over eighteen hundred birds, sixteen hundred and 
eight of which contributed results which have been incorporated in tlie report. 
The contents of one-half of the stomachs were examined under the hand- 
lens on the day they were obtained, while the contents of seven hundied and 
fifty were transferred at once to small apothecary phials containing alcohol, 
and were carefully labeled with a tag. This material I was permitted to study 
much more in detail through the kindness of Prof. J. IL Comstock, of Cornell 
University, who granted me a seat in the Entomological Laboratory, together 
with the free use of specimens and apparatus. I desire to exj)res3 here,, too, my 
appreciation of the personal assistance, besides that coming from a sojourn of 
six months in the sunshine of a warm heart, which Prof. Comstock was able to 
give me. He should in no sense, however, be held responsible for errors which 
may have occurred in the identification of insects found among the food of the 
^^Hie examination of the material which had been collected was completed in 
June, 1878, and the report essentially completed before the middle of the fol¬ 
lowing August, but, knowing that it would not be needed for publication im- 
