Another appropriate article has been submitted for addition to the Birds of Nebraska archive provided by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The lengthy article an account of a club hunt by the Lincoln County Sportsmen's Club on September 1, 1886. Shootists of the city were looking forward to the event when they would go afield to take what game they might find between Brady Island and O'Fallons, northward of the Platte River.
The article — titled "Slaughter of the Innocents" — included the tally of the sorts of "game" taken, including hawks, ducks, plover, chickens (prairie grouse), doves and rabbits, with an overall count based upon the points for each animal. The team with the most points were the declared winners.
After the time afield, the day continued with sumptuous eating at the Hinman House in North Platte. "The repast was a notable one and reflected credit upon the management of the house as well as the culinary artist under whose supervision it was prepared. Several of those who participated in the sport were too tired to wait for supper, but when gorging himself with delicious prairie chicken the reported noticed the following hunters and guests" the article said. A list of those present followed.
It was "a gay time on the field of carnage and jokes will be told of each other for several days to come."
This article is number 1010 for the Birds of Nebraska archive, originally started several years ago with my contribution of hundreds of transcribed and web-ready articles to the University so the information could be readily provided for anyone with an interest. These articles are from 1856 through 1923, with more than 850 from newspapers of the period. Following the first contribution of files prepared because of a personal interest in the subject - and without payment of any sort - a second bunch of files was then submitted and added. Since then, a few articles have been subsequently found and as they fit the subject, web suitable files were sent to University archives. The most recent additions were in December 2008 and 2009.
There is a plethora of details for the history of ornithology in Nebraska conveyed by these articles which are well presented by the site developed by archival staff at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Each bird occurrence record mentioned by each of these articles has been entered into a personally maintained database, with all the advantages available through this interactive means of data management. There is no online source for the specific details.