Zoology Commons^™

Reproduction In A Nebraska Sandhills Population Of The Northern Prairie Lizard Sceloporus Undulatus Garmani, Royce E. Ballinger, Dale L. Droge, Steven M. Jones

Papers in Herpetology

The reproductive cycle of Sceloporus undulatus was studied in western Nebraska. Females mature in the 1st year following hatching at a size of 45 mm SVL. Two clutches averaging 5.5 eggs each are produced. Egg sizes are similar to other grassland populations and contain approximately 650 g-cal. per egg. Egg weight to body weight ratios of 0.33 were the highest which have been reported for any S. undulatus population. Variation in life history characteristics within and between grassland and eastern woodland habitat types are explicable given a knowledge of the growing season, predation intensity and demographic environment.

1980 (Twenty-Third) Fall Occurrence Report

Nebraska Bird Review

Two hundred eighty-one species (plus a possible Veery) are listed in this report, from 12 localities. Comparable figures for prior years are: 284 species from 11 localities in 1979, 269 from 12 in 1978, and 267 from 11 in 1977.

The information is presented in a rough west (left) to east (right) order, with locations of about the same longitude listed with the northernmost first. Two dates indicate the first and last records for the period. The symbols used are

Jl, Au, Sp, Ot, No, and Dm for months

P to indicate a species which is present all the year, …

Wintering Bald Eagles At Southwest Nebraska Reservoirs, David E. Busch

Nebraska Bird Review

As a part of Water and Power Resources Service (formerly Bureau of Reclamation) compliance with endangered species mandates, a study of Bald Eagle use of Lower Missouri Region reservoirs was initiated during the winter of 1979. The author, headquartered in McCook, surveyed a number of reservoirs in Kansas and Nebraska, including Nebraska's four southwest reservoirs.

While wintering Bald Eagles on the Platte River, Harlan County Reservoir, and the Lewis and Clark Lake area have been the subjects of previous studies, the southwest reservoirs have received little such attention. Since wintering Eagle populations at these four reservoirs are relatively low, this …

Correction To 1980 Nebraska Nesting Survey, Alice Kenitz

Nebraska Bird Review

CORRECTION TO 1980 NEBRASKA NESTING SURVEY. The Cedar Waxwing nesting record (NBR 49:10) was not for Morrill Co., but for the city of Morrill, which is in Scotts Bluff Co. I'm sorry I didn't make this clear.

Correction To 1980 Spring Migration Report, Alice Kenitz

Nebraska Bird Review

CORRECTION TO 1980 SPRING MIGRATION REPORT. For Garden County, the departure date for Ring-necked Duck was 27 June, and for Bufflehead it was 25 June. The report showed only the initial dates for these two species. (NBR 48:71 and 72).

Lewis' Woodpeckers In Western Nebraska, Doris Gates

Nebraska Bird Review

On 30 August 1980, Dr. Randy Lawson from Chadron State College reported to me that Lewis' Woodpeckers (Asyndesmus lewis) were in a dead elm tree about eight miles south of Chadron on the west side of U.S. Highway 385. We observed them for about an hour, and in the afternoon, Marj Blinde and I watched them for about an hour more. They numbered at least 12 and flew from the elm to fence posts and telephone posts nearby.

They performed the fly catching actions for which they are noted, but it seemed the attraction of this particular location …

Notes [June 1981]

Nebraska Bird Review

MISSISSIPPI KITE. At 3:30 p.m. 7 September 1980 Alan Grenon and I observed a Mississippi Kite from the back porch of our house, which is several meters south of Fontenelle Forest and about 1 km. west of the Missouri River, overlooking the flood plain. The bird was coming from the east, about 5 m. above the trees. The flight was extremely buoyant and smooth, rather like that of a light-bodied gull or swallow. When it was above us it began to glide in circles, just above the trees. From time to time it reached with its head for its feet, …

Yellow-Throated Warbler, B.J. Rose

Nebraska Bird Review

On 30 August 1980, Dr. Randy Lawson from Chadron State College reported to me that Lewis' Woodpeckers (Asyndesmus lewis) were in a dead elm tree about eight miles south of Chadron on the west side of U.S. Highway 385. We observed them for about an hour, and in the afternoon, Marj Blinde and I watched them for about an hour more. They numbered at least 12 and flew from the elm to fence posts and telephone posts nearby.

They performed the flycatching actions for which they are noted, but it seemed the attraction of this particular location was …

1981 Bald Eagle Count, George W. Brown

Nebraska Bird Review

A Bald Eagle count was made 10 January 198L The temperature was 18° to 46°F.; cloudy, to clear in the afternoon; no snow; wind SSW 18 mph, to calm in the afternoon; river open; 3 parties, headed by John CW, Bliese, George W. Brown, and Stan Longfellow.

Nebraska Bird Review Last Page 49(2) June 1981

Nebraska Bird Review

Table of Contents

1980 (Twenty-third Fall Occurrence Report) …………….14

Correction to 1980 Spring Migration Report …………….20

Correction to 1980 Nebraska Nesting Survey …………….20

The Eightieth Annual Meeting……………. 21

Notes……………. 23

Captive Breeding of Barn Owls in Nebraska- Initial Efforts……………. 31

Lewis' Woodpeckers in Western Nebraska …………….33

1981 Bald Eagle Count …………….34

Wintering Bald Eagles at Southwest Nebraska Reservoirs……………. 34

Masthead From Nebraska Bird Review (June 1981) 49(2)

Nebraska Bird Review

Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, Inc. as its official journal and sent free to all members who are not in arrears for dues. Subscriptions (on a calendar year basis only) are $6.00 per year In the United States and $7.00 per year in all other countries, payable in advance. Single numbers are $1.75 each, postpaid.

Memberships (on a calendar year basis only): Student, $3.00; Active, $7.00; Sustaining, $15.00; Family Active, $10.00; Family Sustaining, $2000; Life, $100.00.

All dues and subscriptions should be remitted to the Treasurer, W.W. Lemburg, RR. 1, Box 96, …

The Eightieth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Bird Review

THE EIGHTIETH ANNUAL MEETING

Fifty-one persons registered for the eightieth Annual Meeting, and related activities, which took place in Grand Island 15 and 16 May 1981, and on the Lemburg farm, north of Cairo, 17 May. During the Friday night get-together and slide show rain began to fall, and there was almost continuous light to moderate rain for the rest of the period, for a total of two inches or so. At the Annual Meeting, held Saturday afternoon, the following officers were elected: Dr. Stanley Longfellow, Kearney, president; Mr. C. Fred Zeillemaker, Crescent Lake NWR, vice-president; Mrs. Emma Johnson, Omaha, …

Whole Issue Nebraska Bird Review (June 1981) 49(2)

Nebraska Bird Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1980 (Twenty-third) Fall Occurrence Report. ................ 14

Correction to 1980 Spring Migration Report ................ 20

Correction to 1980 Nebraska Nesting Survey ................20

The Eightieth Annual Meeting ................21

Notes ................23

Captive Breeding of Barn Owls in Nebraska ~ Initial Efforts ................31

Lewis' Woodpeckers in Western Nebraska ................ 33

1981 Bald Eagle Count ................ 34

Wintering Bald Eagles at Southwest Nebraska Reservoirs................34

Herpetofauna Of Mormon Island Preserve Hall County, Nebraska, Royce E. Ballinger, Steven M. Jones, J. W. Nietfeldt

Papers in Herpetology

Introduction: Studies of reptiles and amphibians in the grasslands of North America have primarily concerned the compilation of state faunal lists (e.g. Smith 1956, Hudson 1942, Webb 1970, Wheeler and Wheeler 1966). There have been a large number of reports on range extensions to augment this basic data. With the exception of the extensive studies by Fitch (1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1963) primarily on reptiles and Bragg (1940a, 1940b, 1943, 1953) primarily on anurans, the ecology of the herpetiles of the grasslands are not well studied. Lynch (1978) provided an excellent analysis of the ecological distributions of the leopard frogs …

A Multivariate Study Of The Family Molossidae (Mammalia, Chiroptera) : Morphology, Ecology, Evolution, Patricia W. Freeman

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

The purpose of my study is to examine as many species of the family Molossidae as possible and to determine, with the aid of numerical methods, what natural groups exist within the family. Sneath & Sokal (1973) discuss the methods and reasons for this kind of analysis. A natural group of organisms as here defined is one in which its members share a close phenetic relationship. Phenetic relationship is defined as "similarity (resemblance) based on a set of phenotypic characteristics of the objects or organisms under study," (Sneath & Sokal, 1973, p. 29), and is distinct in definition from phylogenetic …

Museums Are More Than Elephant Graveyards, Patricia W. Freeman

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

I suspect many people do not know what natural history museums are all about. These museums hold nature's works of art, instead of just man's. There are not many museums of natural history and those few are usually in big cities.

Field Museum of National History in Chicago is one of the largest in the world, along with the British Museum of Natural History in London, the Smithsonian (U.S. National Museum) in Washington, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. These are the museums that have the actual skeletons of dinosaurs, or stuffed elephants, poised in combat, …

1980 Treasurer's Report

Nebraska Bird Review

One-page spreadsheet constituting the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union treasurer's report at year end (December 31) of 1980. The grand total is $4,344.48.

Notes [March 1981]

Nebraska Bird Review

Notes

WHITE-WINGED SCOTER. On 1 May 1980 I had a White-winged Scoter in the yard, at most times not more than 15 to 20 feet away from me. It was here an hour or so before the neighbor's cat caused it to fly. I take it that it was very tired or sick because it would just keep moving enough that I couldn't get any closer.

-Mrs. Don Lockwood

COOPER'S HAWK. A commotion in the top of a pine tree drew my attention. A Blue Jay was being chased by a hawk, whose wings could be heard beating against the …

1980 Christmas Count

Nebraska Bird Review

One hundred and two species (three more than last year) were reported in the 1980 Christmas Count, and three species (two more than last year) were reported present during the count week but not seen on the count day. These increases were in spite of one less count Crawford - this year. Two additional races were reported, compared to three last year. The individual count this year was 317,910, compared to 188,102 last year, with the Snow Goose count at Omaha, particularly, and at DeSoto and the Mallard count at DeSoto accounting for more than the difference between the two …

1980 Nebraska Nesting Survey, Esther V. Bennett

Nebraska Bird Review

Data on the 1980 nesting season in Nebraska were received from nineteen observers, reporting on fifty-seven species from twenty-four counties. Counties in the tabulation are listed in a west to east order, with the northernmost of approximately equal locations given first.

Book Reviews [March 1981]

Nebraska Bird Review

Reviews of The Mystery of Migration edited by Dr. Robin Baker (Viking Press, 256 pages, 81/2 x 11, indexed, hardbound, $29.95) and How to Control House Sparrows by Don Grussing (Roseville Publishing House, 52 pages, 51/2 x 81/2, paperbound, $3.95).

Masthead From Nebraska Bird Review (March 1981) 49(1)

Nebraska Bird Review

Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union Inc. as its official journal and sent free to all members who are not in arrears for dues. Subscriptions (on a calendar year basis only) are $6.00 per year in the United States and $7.00 per year in all other countries, payable in advance. Single numbers are $1.75 each, postpaid.

Memberships (on a calendar year basis only): Student. $3.00: Active, $7.00; Sustaining, $tS.DO; Family Active, $10.00; Family Sustaining, $20.00; Life, $100.00.

Volume 48 Number 4 Of Review Mis-Marked

Nebraska Bird Review

The last two issues of Volume 48 of the Review were both marked (on the front cover) "Volume 48 September, 1980 Number 3". The page numbers will distinguish between the two issues, but an easy mark is that the true Number 4 shows part of the index on the back cover. Those who save their copies of the Review should correct the entry on the issue containing the index to read "December" and "4" to prevent confusion in the future.

Whole Issue Nebraska Bird Review (March 1981) 49(1)

Nebraska Bird Review

Table of Contents

1980 Treasurer's Report .....................2

1980 Christmas Count .....................2

Book Reviews..................... 7

1980 Nebraska Nesting Survey .....................8

Notes .....................11

A New Species Of Rhynchomys (Muridae) From The Philippines, Guy G. Musser, Patricia W. Freeman

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

". . . Mr. Whitehead has made a most wonderful and unexpected discovery, that of a new and peculiar Mammal-fauna inhabiting the Luzon highlands, and, so far as is yet known, mostly isolated on a small plateau on the top of Monte Data, in the centre of Northern Luzon, at an altitude of from 7000 to 8000 feet." With this dramatic announcement, Oldfield Thomas (1898:377) introduced to naturalists the spectacular rats found by Whitehead: Crateromys schadenbergi, Carpomys melanurus, C. phaeurus, Batomys granti, Chrotomys whiteheadi, Celaenomys silaceus, and Rhynchomys soricoides. One of the most interesting of these to Thomas was …

Correspondence Of Food Habits And Morphology In Insectivorous Bats, Patricia W. Freeman

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

In a morphometric study of molossid bats (Freeman, in press), I found that the first principal component (PC) reflected overall size. The second PC was concerned with a suite of jaw and skull measurements that separated molossids with thicker jaws, fewer but larger teeth, and welldeveloped cranial crests (i.e., bats with robust skulls) from those with thinner jaws, more but smaller teeth, and less developed cranial crests. Subsequently, I found (Freeman, 1979) that molossids with robust skulls ate hard-shelled insects such as beetles. and that molossids with gracile skulls ate soft-bodied insects such as moths. Given these conclusions I was …

Observations On Bats From Trinidad, With A Checklist Of Species Occurring On The Island, Catherine H. Carter, Hugh H. Genoways, Robert S. Loregnard, Robert J. Baker

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

In their comprehensive treatment of the bats of Trinidad, Goodwin and Greenhall (1961) reported 58 species from the island. Subsequent authors (Goodwin and Greenhall, 1962, 1964; Genoways et al., 1973a; LaVal, 1973a, 1973b) have added some species to the list and changed the status of others so that the known chiropteran fauna of Trinidad now comprises 64 species: five emballonurids, one noctilionid, four mormoopids, 36 phyllostomids (see Handley, 1980, for family-group names), one natalid, one furipterid, one thyropterid, seven vespertilionids, and eight molossids. Among the phyllostomids, the subfamilies Phyllostominae (15) and Stenodermatinae (14) are the best represented, whereas only a …

Die Erforschung Der Herpetofauna Der Mongolischen Volksrepublik: Situation Und Perspektiven, Günther Peters

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

First paragraph:

Die Landschaften der Mongolei sind arm an Reptilien- und Amphibienarten. Dieser Umstand mag die Frage aufwerfen, ob herpetologische Untersuchungen in Beschränkung auf das Territorium der MVR eine nennenswerte Perspektive haben könnten, nachdem Artenspektrum und Verbteitung der Species annähernd vollständig erkundet sind. Ein Herpetologe wird zweifellos für seine Arbeit auch in diesem Land eine Zukunft sehen, doch muß wohl von vornherein eingestanden werden, daß das Volumen der Probleme dieses Faches hinter denen der übrigen Disziplinen der Vertebratenzoologie und der Entomologie in einem bescheidenerem Rahmen verbleibt. Dies gilt sowohl im rein wissenschaftlichen als erst recht auch im angewandten Bereich ihrer …

Morphological Variation In The Southeastern Pocket Gopher, Geomys Pinetis (Mammalia: Rodentia), Stephen L. Williams, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

The nominal species of southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis, G. colonus, G. cumberlandius, and G. fontanelus), which collectively occupy a geographic range on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, were examined for morphological variation. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine age, sexual, individual, and geographic variation in G. pinetis. Significant differences were found among different age classes and between sexes. Males displayed higher individual variation than females and external measurements were more variable than cranial measurements. Of the four named species in the pinetis-species group (colonus …

Karyology And Morphometrics Of Three Species Of Akodon (Mammalia: Muridae) From Northwestern Argentina, Rubén M. Barquez, Daniel F. Williams, Michael A. Mares, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Chromosomal and morphometric studies were conducted on a sample from an assemblage of Akodon spp. occurring in various patterns of sympatry from the provinces of Catamarca, Jujuy, Salta, and Tucumán, Argentina. Results showed three distinct morphometric groups based upon size. Size also varied with age, but there were no significant differences in measurements of males and females. The three morphometric groups have distinct karyotypes. Akodon caenosus Thomas is the smallest of the three, and has a karyotype of 2n = 34, FN = 40. A. boliviensis tucumanensis J. A. Allen is intermediate in size and has 2n = 40, FN …