Bird-Lore's Twelfth Christmas Bird Census 



IN the northern States, at least, the weather on Christmas Day of 1911 

 was far more favorable for bird students than for birds! While the excep- 

 tionally open season has induced some species to remain with us, north of 

 their usual winter range, their presence by no means compensates for the 

 almost entire lack of those rare and more irregular winter birds towards 

 whose coming we always look forward with a peculiar pleasure. 



Santa Barbara, California, again appears to be the resort most favored by 

 birds in the United States during the winter. Last year's census from this 

 locality of 76 species, recorded by J. H. Bowles, W. Leon Dawson and Watson 

 Snyder, is not 'in the running' with the remarkable list of 100 species observed 

 this year by W. Leon Dawson and Stewart Edward White. Indeed, we doubt 

 if so large a number of birds has heretofore been identified in North America 

 on a single winter day. 



Second place in the census also goes to California, with the list of 60 species 

 from Marysville, sent by Carl and Julius Mueller. 



The editor takes this opportunity to thank those contributors to the 

 census who prepared their manuscript in accordance with the model given in 

 December Bird Lore, and which has been employed in all preceding censuses, 

 and to plead with all others to adopt it should they take part in future censuses. 

 While he is perfectly willing to admit that better methods of recording census 

 observations exist, the uniformity of treatment which the case demands can 

 be attained only by following the form given, and, incidentally, thereby adding 

 greatly to the pleasure with which the editor, in revising, shares the experience 

 of each census-taker! 



May we also call attention to the doubtless already well-known fact that 

 comparatively few printers are ornithologists, and suggest that greater clear- 

 ness in writing birds' names will tend to greater accuracy in printing them. 



The comparatively small question of typographical accuracy suggests the 

 far more important one of ornithological accuracy. While the editor uses all 

 possible care in revising these lists, time is lacking for correspondence con- 

 cerning records which appear to have been based on erroneous or insufficient 

 identification, and where the circumstances do not appear to warrant thtir 

 arbitrary exclusion, such records are left, with the understanding that the 

 author alone is responsible. 



Should he find subsequently that a species had been wrongly entered, we 

 trust that he will follow the example of Mr. Wilbur F. Smith of South Nor- 

 walk. Conn., who on discovering that his census record of the "Shoveller" 

 published in Bird Lore for February, 1904, is incorrect, asks us to make a 

 statement to that effect. — F. M. C. 



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