Birds of Arkansas #271971

Arkansas, although long known as a paradise for sportsmen, has been strangely neglected by ornithologists. No detailed study of the avifauna of the State has hitherto been made and very little on its animal life has been published. In mapping the life zones of the Mississippi Valley the Biological Survey has been hampered by the lack of definite information on the distribution of birds in Arkansas, and in order to obtain the data necessary to complete its maps it was found necessary to make a special investigation of the birds of the State and to compile the published records. Arkansas is remarkable for the abundance and variety of its bird life, and many interesting problems of distribution are presented as a result of its topography and geographical position. Situated in the heart of the Mississippi Valley, it forms part of the great highway of migration for a large majority of the birds of passage which summer in the Northern States and Canada, while it affords a congenial win ter resort for myriads of waterfowl and great numbers of the smaller land birds driven south by the severity of more northern climes.