The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-03
BIRDS OF INDIANA.
Prof. Buffers Contribution to the Re-
port of the State GeOlOgist.

port of the State GeOlOgist.
One-half the great report by the state
geologist. just issued, is devoted to the birds
of the State-some 600 pages. This work
has been done by a naturalist OF natlonal
reputation. Mr. Amos w. Butler, of Brook
vile. now the secretary Of the State Bu-
reau of Charities. For twenty-five years
Mr.. Butler has been the student and his
torian Of the birds of the State. The work
has been so thoroughly and accurately done
that it is a notable addition to the history of
ornithology, and at the same time it is
couched in so simple language and written
in so engaging a style that it will be of the
greatest possible educational value to the
farmers school teachers and amateur bird
lovers of the State
In 1879 the present writer compiled brief
history of the birds of Indiana, seventy-hve
pages in extent, with analytical keys, de-
scriptions of the three hundred species and
notes of bird life and habits, adorned also
with quotations from the standard authors
and the poets. This work, which occupied
the pleasant evenings of one brief winter,
was published in the reports Of the Indiana
Horticultural Society in $780, There were
but eight hundred copies, and the work has
for over fifteen years been out of print,
although occasional inquiries are still made
for it by bird lovers of foreign lands. In
1880 the same society published a more ex-
tensive catalogue, with notes prefaced by
Mr.. Amos W. Butler and this limited edi-
ton was also soon exhausted. In the mean
time Mr.. Butler has continued his research
es, the nomenclature has been revised, new
knoWledges have been acquired of great
value to the student, the farmer, the sports
man, the horticulturist and the common
n md lr0nN LODI
have been brought together in a mastery
way by Mr.. Butler, with the result that the
state is now in possession, at the mere cost
OF publication, of work on the birds of
Indiana unexcelled by that of any other
Middle or Western State, and which, if it
mad been done by the Smithsonian Institu-
ton. would have cost the State not less
than $1,000. Even the work could not have
been accomplished without the use of the
notes and the material collected by Mr. But
decades.
monument to his love of birds and his per-
sistence as q naturalist. He has made free
use Of the previous literature, has had the
aid OF local students and collectors, and
has been especially aided by DIR. Hert Mer-
ram and Mr.. Robert Ridgway, of the Ma
tional Museum. All those natural features
which go to modify bird life, such as the
elevation, the photographic regions, the
drainage, the disposition of plains, hills
extended attention. There is an excellent
section on the Destruction of Birds" both
by human and climatic agencies. Many
will be surprised to learn that the cold wave
of the late winter and early spring of 1895
east of the Mississippi almost swept from
the face of the earth the delicate BIRDS
such as the hermit thrushes and the blue
birds. The race of the latter was almost
exterminated. An interesting CHAPTER is that
ment and it's methods and notifications.
Volumes have been written upon this single
topic the essential facts of which are here
OF special scientific interest is the
photography of Indiana Orthodoxy"
occupying some twenty pages, beginning
with Wilson's great work in isO8 and ex-
tending through several hundred titles to
the present This list includes Audubon's
in the State, nor could one be purchased for
less than $500. OF greater value to teach
ers an and stu students are such works as those
present writer, for by the use of these
any of our common birds may be lana
lyzed' as a plant is worked out" in syste-
matte botany
But the great body of the work is that
devoted to the different species of which
Mr. Butler credits this State with 3d. be-
ginning with the common loon" a regular
winter migrant through the State land one
of which once descended on DR.: w. B.
Fletcher's umbrella he was going home
from the theater night when Washing
ton street resembled lake,, to the, blue
bird which Thoreau described as carry
ing the blue sky on his back and of which
Lowell has the beautiful line:
Shifting his light load of song from post
to post,
The cheerless fence along"
Each of these birds is described at length;
the male and female and immature forms;
the range, the nest and habits the food
course this is the part of the book where
the work comes in No day is too hot or
too cold, too wet or too long for the
ornithologist. He will hang off cliff for
the nest, and sit patiently for hours to get
the habits and the song. That is the cui-~
mination of his work; to know birds at
home n
song.
To these 321 undoubted denizens of the
species which are "hypothetical;' that is,
species which have been taken in neigh
boring States. or whose known range seems
"odd lot;" birds out of range. rare strag-
glers from northern climes, or enticed far
from the southland A bird can go with the
speed of a mail train; they can cross the
Atlantic without rest: from Newfoundland
to the Bermudas is one step. and TO Cuba
high winds. the search for food and ''un-
fathomed motive" should take so light and
venturesome an aerial bark far out of it's
Such, in brief. is Mr. Buffers birds of
Indiana"-a charming and an essential con-
tribution to the natural history records of
the State. 1t is many years since the pres
ent writer held either net or gun, and he
would almost as soon think of shooting.
naturalist is stronger and more worthy
than that of any hunter, and when see a
good piece OF work like this of Mr.. But
lers l am constrained TO enjoy it and give
a word of even my weak commentator to
the author. Indiana has reason to be proud
of it's naturalists: DR.. d. S. Jordan and
Charles Gilbert in fishes. Drs. John Coulter.
Arthur and Barnes in botany. Mr. Butler
in ornithology. Why should our state
jected by Drs. Cox, Levette and Collott
along the ines of economic geology has
been successfully and conscientiously fol-
lowed by Prof. BlatchIey, the present
efficient geologist. who has kept under his
observation the development of all Of cur
natural resources, and has issued two re-
ports which are a credit to the State and
will be consulted in centuries to come
A. w. BRAYTON.
A DOUGHNUT's ALIASES.