The Audubon Societies 



67 



A SOUTHERN CHRISTMAS CENSUS 



We are two little girl-sisters who are living in Georgia now with our papa 

 and mama. 



We were born in Knoxville, Tenn., on Chestnut Hill, where there are a great 



many birds, and Aunt M ■ W who loves birds, taught us their 



names. When I was two and a half years old I could name twelve birds. 

 . Aunt M came from Tennessee to spend Christmas with us. 



This morning we took little sister B- and walked through Inman 



Park where there are a great many evergreen trees called water oaks. We were 

 looking for birds for our Christmas Census. We saw: 12 Blue Jays, 6 Towhees, 

 5 Cardinals, 2 Mockingbirds, 25 in all. We heard a Flicker and a Carolina 

 Wren and thought we heard a Bewick Wren. 



The weather is so warm that we have the windows open. — Anne Wood- 

 ward King (age 5 years), Beth R.\nkin King (age 2 years), Atlanta, Ga. 



[This census is dated December 25, 1916, and being published a year later, as it is, 

 comparisons with this year's weather, which is unusually severe up to the time of writ- 

 ing, December 12, as well as with the occurrence of winter birds this season, will be help- 

 ful. The fact that one of these little girls learned to name twelve birds before she was 

 three years old suggests the appeal of birds to very small children. A boy friend, James 

 York, learned to recognize many birds from a picture-book almost as soon ashe could 

 talk.— A. H. W.] 



A SNAPSHOT OF A GRAY SCREECH OWL 



Note. -The contriinilor of this picture, Wolfrid Rudycrd Boulton. Jr., 

 writes from Beaver, Pa.: "A snaj^shot of a gray Screech Owl thai wintered 

 in our orchard. Its mate was rult)us. .\ pair of I'"lickers raised a brood oi si.\ 

 young ones in the same hole this season.' 



[This observation of double tenantry during a season might often be duplicatetb 

 no doubt, if Junior .\udubon members were on the lookout liuriug oil seasons of the year- 

 The Screech Owl, one of our small Owls, is (|uite ((.ninion thmuL-lioul a wide area, and 



