152 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



rieties of the species. It does not seem right that both species and 

 variety should be kept upon the lists when only the variety is found. 



The accompanying table of our Kansas birds shows the number of 

 families represented, the total number of varieties belonging to each, 

 those that are resident, summer resident, migratory, found regularly 

 in winter, and those accidental to our fauna. 



An analysis of the table will show that 62 + 125, or 187, species 

 breed in the state. Deducting the two obsolete species, we have 185 

 that almost certainly breed in Kansas. Only 119 of these are com- 

 mon, and this is the number that would affect most largely the insect 

 life of the state. Many of these birds are restricted in their range 

 within the state, occurring only in the eastern or western or southern 

 part, and therefore the number of species common in any one locality 

 during the summer will be considerably less than 100. 



In winter — November, December, January, and February — there 

 are 42 + 20, or 62, species common in the state, but probably less 

 than half this number in any given locality. This is during the low- 

 est ebb of insect life, and consequently the food of these species, ex- 

 cept the woodpeckers, must be largely grains and grass seeds, with 

 the addition of a few wild fruits that persist, such as hackberries, 

 moonseed, and ampeloi3sis. 



The spring months — March, April, and May — bring a great 

 abundance of insects, and the number of bird species becomes pro- 

 portionally abundant. The common summer residents — seventy- 

 seven strong — arrive, and the fifty- eight common migrants. These, 

 added to the forty-two comnaon residents, make the number of species 

 then common, 167. Of course these are not all present at once in 

 time or place ; but the table will serve to show how much more abun- 

 dant relatively are the birds during the spring. 



The fall migration of birds is not nearly so well marked as that of 

 spring ; the birds do not linger with us so long. Once started for 

 their winter haunts, they make long flights southward, traveling by 

 day and night. Many species are not seen in our latitude in the fall, 

 and their migration is unmarked, except, perhaps, by an occasional 

 call in the night, carried from the upper air to the ear of the listening 

 man or woman who has learned to recognize the bird voices, and can 

 thus note the time of the flight. 



