doesn aleb ON BAUsL LE et 1 N dal 
remained at our feeding station that winter for the first time, and each 
winter a few more would come. By 1939 we had as many as eight regulars. 
But the following winter, 1940, not a one appeared and I could find no one 
who had observed any except Mrs. George Farmer, of Naperville, Illinois, 
who reported them at different times. 
“It is a mystery to me why the absence of this bird for three years; 
then again this winter, December 10, 1943, one arrived to take up the 
regular diet, then another on January 4, apparently willing to remain with 
us for the rest of the winter. The latter one has less rufous on the sides 
and flank, so I am hoping we have a pair and will be honored with their 
family at our table next winter. 
“T must here add a little note that I know will be of interest to all 
bird lovers. Glen Ellyn was honored with the presence of a mockingbird 
from December 14 to December 24, staying about homes where they had 
yew trees with berries and accepting no food other than these berries.” 
af ff 9 & 
Wildlife of Elk Grove. Preserve* 
By GORDON SAWYER PEARSALL, Naturalist 
THE ELK GROVE PRESERVE of approximately 1400 acres, located in the 
northwest portion of Cook County, 22 miles from the “Loop” of the City 
of Chicago, is perhaps the wildest and least disturbed of the 36,000 acres 
of holdings in the Cook County Forest Preserve District. It is one of the 
original prairie “oak groves.” . 
The north half is traversed from north to south by a gravelled town- 
ship road, but otherwise it has been barriered so that access is permissible 
only by the hiker. No formal trails or picnic areas exist. A large pasture 
for an elk herd occupies the southwestern corner, the caretaker’s house, 
barn, sheds, and a small pasture lie in the center, just off the township 
road, but no further cutting nor any development will be permitted. Already 
wild, it will be encouraged to grow wilder. 
Higgins Road, State Route 72, divides the north half of Elk Grove 
from the south half. The westerly portion of the south half contains a 
winding drive, two small shelters, and a few picnic areas. But most of 
the east half is comprised of woodlands so dense and so wet that they 
are rarely penetrated by persons other than the nature lover or student. 
Fundamentally, Elk Grove is unique, not only for the diversity and 
abundance of all forms of wildlife, but, and more astounding, for the very 
presence of this wildlife within 22 miles of the heart of Chicago and within 
a metropolitan area of five million people. 
Attached to the original of this report on file with the Forest Preserve 
District, and available to responsible interested persons upon request, is a 
*Material for this article is taken from selections from ‘‘A Report on the Fauna and 
Flora of Elk Grove Preserve, Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois,’’ submit- 
ted by Mr. Pearsall to the Commission. Additional selections concerning the birds found 
in the preserve will appear in succeeding numbers of the Bulletin. 
