Birds of Nebraska Online

Purely by happenstance, I discovered this wonderful treasury of historical documents on the birds of Nebraska. As described on the opening page:

The Birds of Nebraska website makes available over a thousand articles from Nebraska newspapers and other sources [e.g., American Naturalist, Auk, Forest and Stream, Natural History, Nidiologist, Oologist, Ornithologist, Ornithologist and Oologist, Osprey, Proceedings of the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union, Young Oologist] written between 1854 and 1923 on the subject of birds in Nebraska.

The articles were collected by James E. Ducey, who generously donated the files to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. They are being presented with the aid of the UNL Libraries.

The site includes an Introduction by Thomas C. Gannon. Users have the ability to browse the collection by title, date, author, and publication; or search by keyword. There is also an index list of 140 species mentioned in the articles.

Typical of articles from the early years are these on bagging 34 prairie chickens in a few hours, and an old fashioned snipe hunt.