The Heartland

by Kristin L. Hoganson

  132. On course, A. E. S., “The Cause of the Dimunition of Game,” Chicago Field, July 31, 1880, 39; on haunts, Charles Linden, “Preservation of Woodcock,” The Rod and Gun, 6 (May 1, 1875): 67.

  133. On pigs, Maurice Thompson, “Our Vanishing Birds,” The Drainage Journal 20 (October 1898): 290–91; on cats, Rolla Warren Kimsey, “Why the Birds Are Decreasing,” Bird-Lore 16 (July–August 1914): 265–66. For a case study on agriculture’s effects on birds, see Michael Shrubb, Birds, Scythes and Combines: A History of Birds and Agricultural Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). On mowing, G. G., Princeton, Illinois, “The Enemies of Our Game Birds,” Chicago Field, Aug. 7, 1880, 413; plowing, Robert W. Hegner, “The Prairie Horned Lark,” Bird-Lore 1 (Oct. 1899): 152–154; brush, “Children to Aid the Birds,” Urbana Courier, July 21, 1913; on thorough cultivation, see Frank Elmer Wood, “A Study of the Mammals of Champaign County, Illinois,” Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History 8 (1908–1910): 504–05.

  134. Robert Ridgway, The Ornithology of Illinois, Part I. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Birds of Illinois (Springfield: H. W. Rokker, 1889), 16.

  135. Stephen A. Forbes, The Native Animal Resources of the State, reprint from Transactions of the Illinois Academy of Science, 5th annual meeting (Bloomington, IL, Feb. 23–24, 1912), 10. The mid-twentieth-century turn to monoculture, more pesticide use, and roadside-to-roadside cultivation further affected habitat; Vernon M. Kleen, Liane Cordle, and Robert A. Montgomery, The Illinois Breeding Bird Atlas, Illinois Natural History Survey Special Publication No. 26, 2004.

  136. W. L. Johnston, Evansville, Ind., “The Dimunition of Game,” The American Field, Oct. 24, 1885, 388. See also Edward Howe Forbush, “The Sora Rail,” Bird-Lore 16 (July–Aug. 1914): 303–06; nesting, 304; draining, 306. On more recent efforts to figure out the long-term effects of settlement farming on prairie avifauna, see Richard E. Warner, “Agricultural Land Use and Grassland Habitat in Illinois: Future Shock for Midwestern Birds?,” Conservation Biology 8 (March 1994): 147–56.

  137. Cunningham, History of Champaign County, 701; “Was Extremely Wet at Broadlands,” Urbana Courier, April 1, 1913.

  138. Maurice Thompson, “Our Vanishing Birds,” Drainage Journal 20 (October 1898): 290–91. A recent study estimates that by 1900, only 2% of the prairies of 1820 remained; Jeffery W. Walk, Michael P. Ward, et al., Illinois Birds: A Century of Change (Champaign: Illinois Natural History Survey, Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, Special Publication 31, 2011), 14. T. E. Musselman, “A History of the Birds of Illinois,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 1–2 (April–July 1921): 1–73.

  139. On reservations, “How Illinois Protects Game,” Urbana Courier, Sept. 13, 1915; see also “Buffalo Herds on Increase,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 28, 1916. On narrow sanctuaries near waterways, Market Hunter, “Abolish Spring Shooting,” American Field, Oct. 24, 1885, 387–88.

  140. “Game and Insectivorous Birds,” Prairie Farmer, Oct. 22, 1864, 263.

  141. Merriam, “Report of Ornithologist and Mammalogist,” 227–58.

  142. His fields were in Ford and Livingston Counties, Havighurst, The Heartland, 146–47.

  143. Merriam, “Report of Ornithologist and Mammalogist,” 244–45.

  144. “The English Sparrow,” Urbana Courier, May 1, 1904.

  145. T. Gilbert Pearson, “The English Sparrow,” Bird-Lore 19 (Jan.–Feb. 1917): 60–63. On bounties, Illinois State Archives, Record Descriptions, County Board of Supervisors/Board of County Commissioners, https://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/IRAD/rd_countyboard.html, accessed Jan. 20, 2016.

  146. “Twelve-Year-Old Kills Brother,” Urbana Courier, April 6, 1920.

  147. Norman J. Colman, “Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture,” Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1886 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1887), 7–45. On economic ornithology, see Matthew D. Evenden, “The Laborers of Nature: Economic Ornithology and the Role of Birds as Agents of Biological Pest Control in North American Agriculture, ca. 1880–1930,” Forest & Conservation History 39 (Oct. 1995): 172–83; on the creation of an office of Economic Ornithology within the Division of Entomology of the Department of Agriculture in 1885, see Keir B. Sterling, “Builders of the U.S. Biological Survey, 1885–1930,” Journal of Forest History 33 (Oct. 1989): 180–87. In 1895 the agency was retitled the Division of Biological Survey, 181.

  148. William Le Baron, “Observations upon Some of the Birds of Illinois Most Interesting to the Agriculturist,” Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society; With the Proceedings of the County Societies, and Kindred Associations, vol. 1, 1853–1854 (Springfield: Lanphier & Walker, 1855), 559.

  149. “The Feed and Growth of the American Robin,” Illinois Farmer 6 (Nov. 1861): 328–29.

  150. “Birds and Insects,” Illinois Farmer 9 (Oct. 1864): 293–94.

  151. “Game and Insectivorous Birds,” Prairie Farmer, Oct. 22, 1864, 263.

  152. Mrs. John V. Farwell, Jr., “The Study of Birds,” in Transactions of the Department of Agriculture of the State of Illinois, vol. 6, ed. S. D. Fisher (Springfield: D. W. Lusk, 1878): 422–26.

  153. The quarantine took effect in 1898. Robert A. Croker, Stephen Forbes and the Rise of American Ecology (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001); licelike young, 112–13; scale, 114.

  154. Forbes moved the state entomologist’s office and the state laboratory onto the Champaign campus. Croker, Stephen Forbes and the Rise of American Ecology, on Forbes as state entomologist, 92; congress, 122.

  155. Edmund Russell, War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 7. Evenden, “The Laborers of Nature: Economic Ornithology and the Role of Birds as Agents of Biological Pest Control,” 175, 180.

  156. On the practice of economic ornithology in the Agriculture Department’s Division of Entomology, see Merriam, “Report of Ornithologist and Mammalogist”; on economic ornithology division, 227; on research methods, 233.

  157. “W. L. Finley Gives Paper on Wild Birds,” Urbana Courier, Sept. 28 1909. See also “Bob White Helps the Farmer,” Urbana Daily Courier, June 2, 1904. On stomach studies, see “What the Government is Doing for Birds,” Urbana Daily Courier, May 7, 1910; “Celebrated Work by Forbes,” Urbana Daily Courier, April 27, 1904.

  158. “Campaign against Insect Criminals,” Urbana Courier, June 19, 1918.

  159. “Big Campaign on Farm Pests,” Urbana Courier, Aug. 20, 1917.

  160. “Why Birds Should Be Protected,” Urbana Courier, July 20, 1920.

  161. On Grange support for bird protection, see Maude E. Young, “Pomona’s Report,” in Thirty-Sixth Annual Session of the State Grange of Illinois (pamphlet), 1907, 20–22; Charles M. Gardner, The Grange—Friend of the Farmer (Washington, DC: National Grange, 1949), 175. On an Illinois Farmers’ Institute bird protection resolution, see Mary Drummond, “Reports of State Societies. Illinois,” Annual Report of the National Association of Audubon Societies for 1907, 335–36.

  162. S. A. Forbes, “The Mid-summer Bird Life of Illinois: A Statistical Study,” American Naturalist 42 (August 1908): 505–19. On a talk, “Deep Study of Our Bird Friends,” Urbana Courier, July 11, 1908.

  163. “Triplets Three Years Ago; Now Come Twins,” Urbana Courier, April 6, 1912.

  164. “Philo Man has Fine Collection of Bird’s Eggs,” Urbana Courier, March 30, 1910.

  165. “Will Legislature Protect Prairie Chicken?” Urbana Courier, April 4, 1911.

  166. “Has Many Engagements,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 23, 1914; “Masons Give Banquet,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 12, 1915; on corn growers’ association, “Will Address Convention,” Urbana Courier, Jan. 15, 1915; on talk, “Philo,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 26, 1910; on Chautauqua, “Philo,” Urbana Courier, Aug. 25, 1916; on academy, “An
nual Meeting at University This Week,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 14, 1910. “Local and Personal,” Urbana Courier, April 26, 1918.

  167. “Rules for Bird Protection Fathered by Government,” Urbana Courier, Aug. 11, 1913; “Illinois Arbor Day and Bird Day,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 19, 1908; Charles B. Reynolds, The Game Laws in Brief (New York: Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 1911), 4, 19. See also Mary Drummond, “State Audubon Reports—Illinois,” Bird-Lore 12 (Nov.–Dec. 1910): 288–90; Palmer, Legislation for the Protection of Birds Other Than Game Birds, 13.

  168. “Birds Show Increase,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 6, 1920; Kurkpatrick Dorsey, The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy: U.S.-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the Progressive Era (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998): 213. See also “The Treaty Wins,” Bird-Lore 18 (Sept.–Oct. 1916): 346–48; “Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” Bird-Lore 20 (Sept.–Oct. 1918): 387–88; “Bird Treaties with Other Countries,” Bird-Lore 22 (May–June 1920): 195.

  169. “Hunting Season Will Open Soon,” Urbana Courier, Aug. 20, 1912.

  170. “Protect ‘Bob White,’” Urbana Courier, Sept. 6, 1904.

  171. “The Robin,” Illinois Farmer 1 (May 1856): 109.

  172. Wells W. Cooke, Report on Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley in the Years 1884 and 1885, ed. and revised by C. Hart Merriam, Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, No. 2 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1888), 9–10.

  173. Palmer, Legislation for the Protection of Birds Other Than Game Birds, 20; see also Merriam, “Report of Ornithologist and Mammalogist,” 250.

  174. “Winter Bird Neighbors,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 15, 1905.

  175. Wells W. Cooke, Assistant Biologist, Bird Migration, Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, No. 185 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1915), 1–47.

  176. “Why Do Birds Migrate?” Canadian Farm 11 (Oct. 2, 1914): 12. On true homes, see also “Winter Bird Neighbors,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 15, 1905.

  177. “The Great White Fleet,” Life 68 (Sept. 28, 1916): 556.

  178. B. S. Bowdish, “Alien License Law,” Bird-Lore 10 (March–April 1908): 97; Edward Howe Forbush, “The Sora Rail,” Bird-Lore 16 (July–Aug. 1914): 303–06; “Local Sportsmen Are Asked Opinions,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 7, 1916. On southern Europeans, see J. R. Stewart, ed., A Standard History of Champaign County Illinois, vol. 1 (Chicago: The Lewis Publication Co., 1918), 15.

  179. “Report of the National Committee for 1904,” Bird-Lore 7 (Jan.–Feb. 1905): 58–74, 67. It reports that “the work of bird protection is being carried on admirably in Mexico through the Comision de Parasitologia Agricola.” The commission had been proposing laws to protect birds useful to agriculture, studying useful birds, distributing circulars among farmers, forming ornithology leagues, and promulgating laws to restrict hunting.

  180. H. W. Howe, “How Ducks Are Slaughtered in Mexico,” Field and Stream 7 (July 1902): 378–80.

  181. Captain R. G. A. Levinge, Echoes from the Backwoods; or Sketches of Transatlantic Life, in two vols., vol. 1 (London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, 1846), chap. 5; W. Ross King, The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada (London: Hurst and Blackett, 1866); The Canadian Sportsman and Naturalist 1 (June 15, 1881).

  182. Reynolds, The Game Laws in Brief, 93–100; “Game Laws Digest in U.S.–Canada,” Urbana Courier, Aug. 2, 1917. On Canadian game laws see also Palmer, Legislation for the Protection of Birds Other than Game Birds, 20; “Federal Game Wardens Are on the Alert,” Urbana Courier, March 26, 1917.

  183. Mark Cioc, The Game of Conservation: International Treaties to Protect the World’s Migratory Animals (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009), 93.

  184. John L. Audubon, “Facts and Observations Connected with the Permanent Residence of Swallows in the United States,” Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New-York 1 (New York: J. Seymour, 1877): 166–68.

  185. George Ord, Sketch of the Life of Alexander Wilson: Author of the American Ornithology (Philadelphia: H. Hall, 1828), c-ci.

  186. “The Blue Bird,” Illinois Farmer 1 (April 1856): 86–87.

  187. “The Purple Martin,” Illinois Farmer 1 (June 1856): 136.

  188. “Game and Insectivorous Birds,” Prairie Farmer, Oct. 22, 1864, 263.

  189. Richard R. Graber and Sylvia Sue Hassler, “The Effectiveness of Aircraft-Type (APS) Radar in Detecting Birds,” The Wilson Bulletin 74 (Dec. 1962): 367–80.

  190. William Hosea Ballou, “Natural History,” American Field 16 (Dec. 10, 1881): 380.

  191. “Migration of Birds,” American Meteorological Journal 1 (April 1885): 511–12.

  192. “Bird-Lore’s Eleventh Bird Census,” Bird-Lore 13 (Jan.–Feb. 1911): 18–44; Illinois, 39; foreign, 43–44.

  193. On Hudson’s Bay Co., Robert Ridgway, “The Sparrow Hawk or American Kestril,” The Rod and Gun 6 (June 26, 1875): 20; Juan Renadro, “Notes on Some Birds of the United States Which Occur in the Mexican Fauna,” translated by F. H. Carpenter, Ornithologist and Oölogist 11 (Sept. 1886): 132–33.

  194. Merriam, “Report of Ornithologist and Mammalogist,” 250. On the American Ornithologists’ Union’s Committee on the Migration of Birds circa 1883 and its network of observers in the United States and Canada, see Sterling, “Builders of the U.S. Biological Survey, 1885–1930,” 180. On U.S. natural history museum efforts to build collections of Latin American birds through relationships with U.S. and European expats, see Camilo Quintero Toro, Birds of Empire, Birds of Nation: A History of Science, Economy, and Conservation in United States-Colombia Relations (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 2012), 68, 76.

  195. “Bird Migration and Its Secrets,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 19, 1918; on Urbana birdwatcher Frank Smith and his associates, see “A Coöperative Study of Bird Migration,” Bird-Lore 16 (July–Aug. 1914): 270–73.

  196. A report also came in from aptly named Newton L. Partridge of White Heath, in Piatt County. See “Bird-Lore’s Eleventh Bird Census,” Bird-Lore 13 (Jan.–Feb. 1911): 18–44; on Illinois, 39; George, Eddie and Census, “Bird Lore’s Sixteenth Christmas Census,” Bird-Lore 18 (Jan.–Feb. 1916): 19–42; on Sidney, “A Record of the Bald Eagle from Champaign County, Ill.,” Bird-Lore 20 (Nov.–Dec. 1918): 421.

  197. Calamink, “The Oldest Club in America—The Audubon Club,” Chicago Field, Sept. 20, 1879, 88–89. On Smithsonian sponsorship of expedition to study the birds of Antigua and Barbuda, see Stuart T. Danforth, “The Birds of Antigua,” The Auk 51 (July 1934): 350–64. On the AOU, see Cooke, Report on Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley in the Years 1884 and 1885, 9–10.

  198. Cooke, Bird Migration, 1–47. On Mexican agents, Sterling, “Builders of the U.S. Biological Survey, 1885–1930,” 185.

  199. Merriam, “Report of Ornithologist and Mammalogist,” 252.

  200. On the AOU, see Cooke, Report on Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley in the Years 1884 and 1885, 9–10. A regular contributor to American Field was Urbana resident A. J. Miller; “Strange Was the Sight,” Urbana Courier, April 11, 1906.

  201. “Beats Record of Best Aeroplane,” Urbana Courier, June 29, 1915.

  202. “Beats Record of Best Aeroplane,” Urbana Courier, June 29, 1915.

  203. “Bird Migration and Its Secrets,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 19, 1918. The ornithological press reported on many more discoveries than the Courier. See, for example, W. W. Cooke, “The Migration of Warblers,” Bird-Lore 6 (Jan.–Feb. 1904): 21–24; Frank M. Chapman, “The Bobolink,” Bird-Lore 11 (May–June 1909): 137–40; Harry C. Oberholser, “The Migration of North American Birds III, The Summer and Hepatic Tanagers, Martins, and Barn Swallows,” Bird-Lore 20 (March–April 1918): 145–52.

  204. “Where Wild Fowl Breed,” Urbana Courier, March 6, 1918.

  205. “The Game Birds and Mammals of the Chicago Market,” Chicago Field, April 10, 1880, 136.

  206. “Teachers Are Engaged,” Urbana Couri
er, Aug. 12, 1905.

  207. “University Alumni Meet to Organize,” Urbana Courier, Jan. 22, 1912.

  208. “Rantoul Man to Visit Arctics,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 12, 1912.

  209. “Urbana Men Kill Five Rare Birds,” Urbana Courier, March 25, 1913.

  210. Donald B. MacMillan, Four Years in the White North (Boston: The Medici Society, 1925).

  211. “Receive News from Crockerland,” Urbana Courier, May 23, 1914.

  212. “Local Explorers Start Wednesday,” Urbana Courier, July 1, 1913. On Tanquary, “Illinois Arctic Club Organized,” Urbana Courier, May 22, 1913; MacMillan, Four Years in the White North, 4.

  213. “Illinois Arctic Club Organized,” Urbana Courier, May 22, 1913.

  214. “Rantoul Man to Visit Arctics,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 12, 1912.

  215. “Miss James Entertains in Ekblaw’s Honor,” Urbana Courier, Feb. 20, 1913; “Local Explorers to Leave July 2,” Urbana Courier, June 28, 1913.

  216. “Crockerland Is Proven a Myth,” Urbana Courier, Nov. 25, 1914.

  217. “Receives Letter from W. Elmer Ekblaw,” Urbana Courier, June 21, 1915. MacMillan, Four Years in the White North, 281.

  218. “Local Explorers Start Wednesday,” Urbana Courier, July 1, 1913.

  219. “Is Elmer Ekblaw Dead or Alive?” Urbana Courier, April 18, 1917; “Mrs. Slawson Hears from Elmer Ekblaw,” Urbana Courier, June 28, 1915. On hunts, see “Crockerland is Proven a Myth,” Urbana Courier, Nov. 25, 1914.

  220. “Rantoul Folk Honor Ekblaw,” Urbana Courier, Sept. 11, 1917.

  221. “Ekblaw to Show Pictures,” Urbana Courier, Aug. 8, 1919; on illustrations, “University of Illinois Weekly Calendar,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 15, 1917; “Ekblaw to Speak at Rantoul,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 1, 1917; “Ekblaw Will Deliver Address at Danville,” Urbana Courier, Sept. 27, 1917; on Masonic, “University of Illinois Weekly Calendar,” Urbana Courier, Dec. 15, 1917; “Ekblaw Is Next Luncheon Speaker,” Urbana Courier, Sept. 11, 1920; “Curier U. P. Wire at Elks,” Urbana Courier, Oct. 30, 1920; “Elmer Ekblaw to Address Omicron NU,” Urbana Courier, Jan. 30, 1919; “University Republican Club Meets Friday,” Urbana Courier, Oct. 1, 1919.