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1880 · Chapman, History of St. Joseph County, Ch. II, pp. 340–344 · Run B #215
The leg's spine is a single dated chapter, and it is a survey of loss already in progress: Chapter II of Chas. C. Chapman & Co.'s History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (Chicago, 1880) — "Natural History — Quadrupeds — Birds — Reptiles — Fishes — Plants," pp. 340–345 — opens with the verdict this section measures against: of the native quadrupeds that once roamed the county, "but few of the smaller remain, and none of the larger," and of the larger not even a taxidermy specimen could be found in the county in 1880. The chapter is a compiler's survey, drawn from the settlers and sportsmen then living, and it is printed here as exactly that — the county's fauna as the record stood at 1880, neither a pristine baseline nor a modern census. What Chapman fixes, he fixes at county frame; Penn Township is inside his county, and this section claims township presence only where a township record exists.
The quadruped roll, in Chapman's order: gone — the buffalo, "driven westward," and with or before it the beaver, elk, badger, panther, black wolf and black bear. Become very rare — the gray fox, the catamount, otter, lynx, "the beautiful Virginia deer," opossum, raccoon, mink, muskrat, the weasels, skunk, woodchuck, prairie mole, shrew mole, meadow and deer mouse, and the gray rabbit. Still present — six squirrels (gray timber, fox, chipmunk, large gray prairie, striped and spotted prairie, and the flying squirrel) and two bats, the dark-brown and the reddish. The bird list, carried in the articles below at the items it feeds, is organized by the period's orders — Perchers, Birds of Prey, Climbers, Scratchers, Swimmers and Waders — and already carries its own losses: the golden eagle "now no longer seen here," the whooping crane "now never seen," the wild turkey "almost entirely disappeared," the swimmers "almost disappeared." The fish list (p. 344) is short and is printed whole at item 7. Reptiles close the chapter (p. 344): all species still found except most of the poisonous snakes; the prairie rattlesnake still occasionally found; the copperhead always rare.
Chapman is used across this build as the settlement baseline; this chapter is the one place the build had never read him as a naturalist. Read whole, he is the dated survey the audit asked for — 1880, named, paginated — and every article below is written as a measurement from it: what he listed as gone stayed gone, what he listed as rare in several cases returned under management, and what he did not list at all is printed as not listed, never silently supplied.
Sources: Chapman, History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (Chas. C. Chapman & Co., Chicago, 1880), Ch. II, pp. 340–343), reptiles and fishes (p. 344); contents entry, Part 1 ("CHAPTER II., NATURAL HISTORY 340, Quadrupeds 340, Birds 340, Reptiles 344, Fish 344").