Introduction by Ralph Hoffmann
to the
Birds of the Kansas City Region, Missouri:

The Ballona Institute has recently acquired this book to add to its growing library on birds. The book is available for research and careful perusal by people interested in birds, ornithology, birding, history, and geography. As you will see further on in this afterword, the book is useful for the study of conservation, restoration, ecology, history, and geography of the Ballona ecosystem. For example, the discussion of the Least Tern in Kansas City, along the Missouri River, has implications for the conservation, preservation, restoration, and recreation not only at Ballona, but all along the coast of our greater southern California Bight.

The year, 1919, is also significant because Ralph Hoffmann departs Missouri after 10 years of residence in the state. Ralph chooses to immigrate to the region of the southern California bight with his wife and children. The 10 years as a headmaster (principal) at two different private schools in Missouri is given up, as Ralph Hoffmann takes a position as a teacher at a private school in Santa Babara County at Carpinteria.

The year, 1919, is also when Harry Harris visits southern California, where he spent some time in Los Angeles County, by making a visit to Catalina Island. He stayed at the island town of Avalon for 17 days. And he wrote an article about his stay on Catalina and the birds that he observed there.

This researcher has chosen selected words and phrases used in Ralph Hoffmann's Introduction to printed in bold type experimentally for focusing the reader on interesting points deemed relevant for understanding geography and ecology. In addition, this researcher has selected some certain words and prhases where an "internet highlighted link" are provided as a further experiment with Hoffmann's Introduction.

The "Introduction" provides an opportunity to absorb the natural history and environmental history of Kansas City in 1919, as well as further back in time to the early 1800s. In fact, Ralph Hoffmann paraphrases the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition as it passed through the region of Kansas City, in both 1806 and 1807. Ralph Hoffmann provides a unique glimpse into Kansas City environs of the past, with it prairies, bluffs, cliffs, "draws" as well as its plants (trees, bushes, wildflowers) and its beautiful birds.

Kansas City, itself is on the Missouri River, at its junction with the Kansas, or Kaw River, in Lat. 39, Long 94 30'. The Missouri River makes a sharp turn to the east here. It is bordered on the south by bluffs of loess and cliffs of limestone which rise to a height of more than 250 feet above the river. On the north, in Clay County, there is a broad flood plain, bordered at some distance from the river by cliffs. These alternations of bluff, cliff, sand bar and flood plain are characteristic of the Missouri River throughout its course in the region defined. Where small streams find their way to the river, a "draw" winds for a short distance back of the bluffs. The bluffs and the "draws" are richly clothed with pawpaw and red bud, wild grape and black maple, the haunts of the Cardinal and the Carolina Wren.

Where small rivers, such as the Big and Little Blue, have cut a valley to the Missouri from the higher prairies, they duplicate in miniature the features characteristic of the great river; narrow bottom lands fringe one side, and cliffs the other, alternating as the streams wind. The rich soil along the rivers is shaded by great elms, tall hackberries and "Cochi" beans (Kentucky Coffee trees); the base of the cliffs are covered with bladder-nut and cornel. Here the Kentucky Warbler, the Tufted Tit and the Red-bellied Woodpecker are characteristic birds.

Above the cliffs there are thin-soiled shelves of limestone, covered in summer and fall with a profusion of bright flowers, nigger-heads, asters, goldenrod and blazing star. If these so-called barrens are extensive, they are covered with thickets of plum, wild crab and buckthorn, the favorite home of Bell's Vireo. Where the soilbecomes deeper and the prairie begins, man has for the most part taken possession, and turned the stiff prairie grass under, and is now raising wheat, clover, alfalfa and grass. The Prairie Horned Lark, the Mourning Dove, and the Dickcissel are the birds of the wheat fields. On the farmsteads themselves and in the windbreaks of soft maple that surround them, breed the birds which the farmer knows best, the Wren, the Kingbird, the Purple Martin, the Bluebird, and the rest of the well known list. In the osage orange hedges that divide the upland fields, Shrikes nest and many migrant birds find shelter.

The river, as it sweeps past on it way to the Gulf, has offered for untold centuries a highway for the many species that breed in northern latitudes. The House Wrens and and Orchard Orioles of Nebraska rest in early May in the willows along its bars, the Purple Finches and Siskins on their way south in the fall, feed on the "buttons" of the sycamores. But to the real river-man, who has watched for many years the floods make and remake the ever-shifting shores, the flight of birds suggests the great waves of ducks and geese that rest on the sandbars, or in the swift current itself, or the "Snipe," the Sandpipers or Plover that feed on the exposed flats or wheel with shrill pipings over the muddy water. With these birds are associated all the other waterfowl less important to the sportsman, but often coming within his ken, the majestic Pelican, the Grebe, the Coot and the Herons.

The city itself has destroyed many former breeding places of the birds, but in the residence section the planting of trees and shrubs has attracted those species that adapt themselves to the neighborhood of man. The Brown Thrashers and Catbirds nest in the shrubbery, Orioles and Robins in the elms, Bluebirds, Wrens, and Martins in the boxes now so generally put up. The Chimney Swift is still seen over the mass of stone and concrete that covers the downtown section of the city.

During migration many of the smaller birds pass through the tree tops in the residence sections of the city, or hide by day in th shrubbery of the yards. In any open space, such as Penn Valley Park, Mount Washington or Forest Hill Cemetery, a large number of migrants may be found. Swope Park is so extensive and so varied in character that almost every bird belonging to the Kansas City region may be found there either in breeding, wintering or passing through. A census of the birds in Swope Park, made by Mr. A.E. Shirling, includes 150 species, of which 73 species, represented by 2,025 singing males, bred within the borders of the Park.

The region about Kansas City probably compares favorably with any section of the country in the number of birds that are found at different seasons of the year. In only one respect is the region unfavorable for certain groups of birds; it lacks extensive marshes or reedy lakes where Rails, Marsh Wrens and Bitterns could find the shelter in which they breed. There are a few places, chiefly near the Missouri River, where such birds have been found. In Platte County the shallow river-lakes, such as Bean Lake, and Sugar and Mud Lakes at Armour, are covered in part with a growth of cat-tails. Here Gallinules, Least Bitterns, Black Terns and Yellow-headed Blackbirds are fairly common.

The increase of ducks and geese, since the passage of the Federal Migratory Bird Law, has been noticeable. More ducks have passsed through, and, in many localities, several species are remaining to breed, which formerly were driven off by spring shooting.

The larger birds, those which were hunted, and the birds of prey which depend on the game birds for food and were themselves a mark for gunners, have diminished to a deplorable extent. All the earlier naturalists noted the abundance of waterfowl along the Missouri, and of game birds on its banks. Canada Geese nested in the Missouri bottoms in the days of Audubon, Wild Turkey and Prairie Chicken were everywhere common. Eagles and Fish Hawks built bulky nests in the tall trees in the bottom lands; Duck Hawks and Ravens had their homes in the cliffs.

Several species once plentiful or even abundant are now extinct, either in the whole country, or in the region covered by this list. The Passenger Pigeon and the Paroquet have vanished everywhere; the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Ruffed Grouse are gone from Western Missouri.

On the other hand, some birds have probably increased with the cutting off of the timber and cultivation of the fields. There are probably more Dickcissels and Prairie Horned Larks, more Shrikes and Bluebirds now than fifty years ago. Their enemies have decreased and th land suitable for breeding has grown more extensive.

Very little has been previously published about the birds of Western Missouri. The following references form as complete a bibliography as the author has been able to compile:

On June 25, 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition encamped for the night on an island in the Missouri River near the mouth of a large creek called the Blue-water (now known as Big Blue River) and the next evening had reached a point at the confluence of the Kansas (Kaw) where they remained for two days. Here they secured game in plenty, including Deer and Wild Turkey. On their return they passed this point on September 15, 1806, and killed an Elk and saw many Wild Turkeys.

Thomas Say, of the Long Expedition, made an excursion across Jackson County from Fort Osage (Sibley) to the Konza River (Kaw), leaving the fort on August 6, 1819, and rejoining the main party on the Missouri, near the mouth of the Platte, about September 1. He mentions the abundance of game and states that here Ravens were first seen by the party. He adds that in this region he saw a pretty species of Sparrow that was altogether new to him. Reference is here made to the Lark Sparrow which the party had discovered a short time before further down the Missouri River at Bellefontaine.

In the spring of 1834, Thomas Nuttall in company with Jno. K. Townsend passed through Jackson County on the old Independence-Westport Road on his way to the Pacific Coast. Mention of this stage of the journey is made in the second edition of his "Manual," published in 1840, where the Mourning Finch (now known as Harris's Sparrow) is described and the type locality given as "a few miles west of Independence."

Maximilian, Prince of Wied, had ascended the Missouri River in 1833, and on his return the next spring, just 17 days after Nuttall and Townsend had left Independence, he discovered, near the mouth of Platte River, a finch new to him which he named Fringilla comata. He minutely described this bird (the Mourning Fince of Nuttall) in the second volume of his journal published in 1841.

Audubon, who reached this point on May 2, 1843, on his journey up the Missouri River to Fort Union, speaks in his journal of the abundance of Wild Turkeys and Paroquets, and gives a list of 49 species of birds observed or collected. This list contains such locally extinct or rare birds as Ruffe Grouse, Duck Hawk, Swan, Bald Eagle (two nests). In the bottom land on the Missouri side, near Leavenworth, his party took specimens of the sparrow which he named after his friend Edward Harris, not knowing of the discovery of this bird in 1834 by Nuttall. At this point was discovered a vireo, new to science, which Audubon named after another member of the party - J. G. Bell.

On the return, in 1843, four Paroquets and two Ruffed Grouse were killed in the vicinity of St. Joseph, and near Leavenworth great flocks of migrating Geese and Pelicans were seen on October 10th. Three days later a great number of Sandhill Cranes were seen.

Edward Harris, who accompanied Audubon, and for whom the supposedly new finch wsa named, published a list of 118 species seen between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Union (5th Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, for 1850).

Of the birds noted by Dr. P. R. Hay in this vicinity in 1854, at least one species the Purple Sandpiper, has not since been observed (19th Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 1864).

Dr. J. A. Allen collected a series of specimens in May, 1871, in the bottoms of Platte County, and took several species of water-birds about a lagoon, probably Horseshoe Lake. (Bull. Museum Comparative Zool., 1872).

W. E. D. Scott, who was employed at the Normal School of Warrensburg, Johnson County, during the spring of 1874, published a list of 147 species observed and collected in that vicinity (Nuttall Bulletin, Vol. 4, 1879).

A few scattered field notes and short articles on rare and unexpected species, by local observers, have from time to time appeared in the bird journals. No previous attempt has been made to give a complete local list, excepting of course the admirable state list of Mr. Otto Widmann. This list was published in 1907 by the St. Louis Academy of Sciences as Vol. XVII, No. 1, of their Transactions. The list is a monumnet to the accurate and full information which Mr. Widmann gathered together from his own widespread observation and from his correspondents throughout the state.

When Harry Harris wrote his book on the birds of the Kansas City region, he gave some space in his book to acknowledge various people who assisted him, but he discussed Ralph Hoffmann first and foremost with a very glowing compliment as follows:

"The greatest stimulus to the work has been the field-companionship of Mr. Ralph Hoffmann. The vast fund of ornithological and book lore possessed by this enthusiastic and kindly naturalist has been a constant inspiration."

Wit certainty, we know that Ralph Hoffmann maintained a cordial professional friendship with Harry Harris, even after moving to California in 1919. Some proof for this belief is found in two articles written by Ralph Hoffmann for Condor soon after moving to Carpinteria in southern California.

For example, in 1920, Ralph Hoffmann explored Santa Cruz Island, not far from his new home in Carpinteria, off the coast of southern California. On this journey, Ralph Hoffmann found raven pellets, but then discussed this discovery with Harry Harris (still residing in Missouri) and with Harold Bryant (California Fish & Game Commission) during the next year. When Ralph wrote the article for submittal to Condor he quoted Harry Harris regarding a corroborating article in British Birds which discloses that ravens in England regurgitate pellets. Ralph incorporated this helpful and friendly knowledge that he gained from Harry Harris in the article.

In a subsequent article that Ralph submitted to Condor in 1921, Harry Harris again refers Ralph to an article in British Birds regarding the courtship behavior of the congener of the Least Tern in England. Apparently, in England and elsewhere in Europe, a very close relative of our American Least Tern, displays the same courtship and mating behavior as this european tern.

Still, one wonders just how closely Ralph Hoffmann and Harry Harris maintained their friendship, since after a few more year elapse, Harry Harris also moved from Missouri to California (Eagle Rock) in 1925. My research shows that Harry Harris became active in the southern division of the Cooper Ornithological Club, which centered its activities at Exposition Park in the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. He also served one elected term as a president of that organization.

It is also known that Ralph Hoffmann had close ties with the Cooper Ornithological Club and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. For example, the bulletins of the "Club" show Ralph Hoffmann in attendence at some of their meetings, which indicates that he traveled from Santa Barbara (Carpinteria) to Los Angeles. It seems likely, that on one of those travels to the Los Angeles Museum, Ralph Hoffmann planned a trip with Luther Wyman, first curator of birds (ornithology) at the Los Angeles County Museum in Los Angeles. There is a published article in "CONDOR" about the discoverey of a sandpiper in the Ballona wetlands of Playa del Rey by Luther Wyman and Ralph Hoffmann. They must have seen many other kinds of birds together on their birding trip to Playa del Rey and coast thereabouts. Wouldn't it be nice to discover and peruse the field notes of Ralph Hoffmann and Luther Wyman for that field trip on September 16, 1923? Wouldn't it be interesting to discover that Harry Harris was on the field trip with them? One question leads to another!