Collecting on the Prairie:
Early Oologists in North Dakota
Footnotes
1 Lloyd F. Kiff, "Report on Egg Collections in North America" (Unpublished
paper, May 2, 1977, Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, Los Angeles,
California), p. 1.
2 Bent, Bailey, Job, and Bishop were prominent oologists who collected
extensively and published major works in the field of oology. Typically they
amassed large collections, which were later housed at prominent museums. For
example, Bent's oological collection, now housed at the National Museum,
Washington, D.C., contained 30,000 eggs representing 902 species.
3 For further information on Eastgate and other North Dakota oologists, see
Marc J. Bechard and C. Stuart Houston, "North Dakota Oologists," Blue Jay,
42-3 (September 1984), pp. 177-183.
4 Elmer T. Judd, List of North Dakota Birds Found in the Big Coulee, Turtle
Mountains and Devils Lake Region, As noted during the years 1890 to 1896 and
verified in the subsequent years to date, privately published, 1917, p. 3.
5 Holton A. Shaw Papers (hereafter HASP), Letter from Alf Eastgate, August 18,
1901. State Historical Society of North Dakota Manuscript Collection. Note:
Bishop's collection of skins, eggs, nests and sterna of shorebirds numbering
53,000 specimens, is now housed in Chicago's Museum of Natural History. A
smaller collection of Bishop's was donated to the Peabody Museum at Yale.
See Hildegarde Howard, "Louis Bennett Bishop, 1865-1950," Auk (October 1951),
pp. 440-446. Included in Bishop's collection were 2,950 bird skins and 3,525
eggs taken during his collecting trips in North Dakota during the years 1895,
1901, 1902, and 1905. See Louis B. Bishop, Birds of the Turtle Mountain —
Devils Lake Region of North Dakota (Unpublished Ms., 1946, State Historical
Society of North Dakota Manuscript Collection), pp. 1-10.
6 HASP, Letter from Alf Eastgate, July 12, 1902.
7 Alfred H. Eastgate, "My Honeymoon," The Museum, 1 (1895), p. 121.
8 The hotel was constructed in 1882 along a route that its builders
erroneously anticipated a branch line of the Great Northern Railroad. The
hotel was not built specifically to accommodate hunters, but it came to
serve that purpose. See Anonymous, Wam-Dus-Ky: A Descriptive Record of a
Hunting Trip to North Dakota, 1892 (Minneapolis, 1893).
9 In 1899, for example, Shaw was selling eggs and nests of Baldpates and
Lesser Scaups at 17½ and 25 cents each respectively compared to 50 cents
per egg and 50 cents per nest of the white-winged scoter — this at a time
when the cost of mounting a Golden Eagle was $5.00, a Great Gray Owl $2.50,
and a Marsh Hawk $2.00. See HASP, Jean Bell to H.A. Shaw, October 23, 1899;
Ernest L. Brown to H.A. Shaw, December 31, 1898; Ernest L. Brown to H.A.
Shaw, April 10, 1899; and Ernest L. Brown to H.A. Shaw, September 16, 1899.
10 Decreasing lake levels in subsequent years altered the land area within the
reservation, now classified as a National Wildlife Refuge. The 1951 U.S.
Geological Survey Topographic maps (Pekin NW Quadrangle) show two islands
and two peninsulas as comprising the land area within the refuge. For
additional information on the early establishment of national bird
reservations see T.S. Palmer. National Reservations for the Protection of
Wild Life (Circular No. 87, Bureau of Biological Survey, United States
Department of Agriculture, 1912).
11 Shaw's correspondence indicates he was actively and regularly selling and
trading eggs, as well as fossils and archeological artifacts, in 1892.
12 Through the use of an egg drill, blow pipe and other tools, eggs were
thoroughly cleaned, marked with appropriate data, and other wise readied in
preparation for storage or trading.
13 Louis B. Bishop, Birds of the Turtle Mountain-Devils Lake Region of North
Dakota (Unpublished Ms., 1946, State Historical Society of North Dakota,
Manuscript Collection, Louis B. Bishop Papers), p. 8. In the summer of 1906
Eastgate, in the capacity of "taxidermist and general assistant,"
accompanied H.K. Job, Louis B. Bishop and Jonathan Dwight, Jr. on an
ornithological trip at Crane Lake, Saskatchewan. See C. Stuart Houston,
"Birds and Birders at Crane Lake, Saskatchewan," Blue Jay, 41(4) (December
1983), p. 196.
14 The committee was established in 1883 at the second AOU Congress and was the
origin of the Audubon Society. Dr. George Bird Grinnell, one of the
committee's most active members, also served as president of the Audubon
Society. See Bird Lore, 1:2 (April 1899), p. 61.
15 Louis B. Bishop Papers, State Historical Society of North Dakota Manuscript
Collection. Collectors were occasionally arrested. Bishop's field notes for
August 1, 1902 state, "Learned fr. letter fr. Bowman that Bryant and Mummery
were arrested for collecting on July 29." Bowman was probably Charles W of
Devils Lake; Bryant was likely Edwin S., and Mummery was likely W. Mummery.
See Bechard and Houston, "North Dakota Oologists."
16 HASP, Alf Eastgate to Shaw, August 18, 1901. In 1901 non-resident hunting
licenses were $25.00; resident licenses were seventy-five cents. William
Ackerman is listed in the 1900-01 Grand Forks City Directory as Deputy Grand
Forks County Auditor and as County Auditor in the 1902-03 directory. County
Auditors issued hunting licenses in 1901.
17 Kiff, p. 2.
18 Letter, Lewis F. Crawford to Alf Eastgate, September 3, 1924, State
Historical Society of North Dakota, Artifact Accession Numbers, Document
Files (1793-1794).
