Comparative Abundance of Birds 

 A Letter from Abbott H. Thayer 



Editor of Bird-Lore: 



I send you herewith a letter from Professor Munsterberg. 



Having long believed that our common birds are not widely diminishing, 

 except in certain special cases where circumstances of civilization have ceased 

 to sustain them at an artificial abundance (as in the case of Swifts and Barn 

 Swallows), I asked Prof. Hugo Munsterberg, the Harvard Professor of 

 Psychology, to corroborate my belief that circular question-lists sent about to 

 gather the public opinion on this subject are dangerous and misleading, 

 because of the very psychological reason that he gives in the accompany- 

 ing letter. 



His answer sent you herewith should influence all the local Audubon Socie- 

 ties who publish such dismal annovmcements. These Societies will swiftly 

 diminish their own credit by such an unscientific position. 



Let me here say that I go annually over my boyhood stamping-ground 

 around Keene, N. H., a small city of ten thousand inhabitants, now about twice 

 the size it was fifty years ago when I knew every foot of its surroundings. 

 Every meadow has still its Meadowlarks and, close by the town, one of the 

 principal meadows has still its Upland Plovers; although I do not, of course, 

 class this species with the rest. Bobolinks are everywhere that they ever 

 were; hundreds of them, young and old, crowd the fences, the grass, and the 

 tops of the neighboring groves, when the year's generation is accomplished. 

 Every wet place has its Redwings; the elms their Orioles and Crackles; the 

 river its Spotted Sandpipers and Wood Ducks. Bluebirds are just now scarce 

 hereabouts, but I saw three or four pairs last week in Keene, and, to my great 

 joy, Nighthawks seem to be picking up. There, again, they build on the tops 

 of the stores about the center of the town. It is true, I saw only one individual 

 there, the other day, but it was the first for several years; we have seen four 

 in all, hereabouts, this year. In this region Hermit Thrushes still seem less 

 numerous than up to 191 2, and in Dublin I have seen no Bluebirds this sea- 

 son; but, taking the whole region together, its bird fauna is, in my belief, 

 unabated. Its Robins, Bobolinks, Catbirds, Kingbirds, Flickers, Orioles, 

 Warblers, Swallows, Flycatchers, its three kinds of Vireo, its Meadowlarks, 

 Spotted Sandpipers, and many other species, are all at their posts, and this, 

 in my belief, is all there ever were. Of course, all species fluctuate, and the 

 Hermits and Bluebirds will doubtless abound again. — A. H. Thayer, Monad- 

 nock, N. H., May 31, 1914. 



Professor Miinsterberg's Letter 



Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 28, 1914- 

 My dear Sir: You raise the interesting question of whether the testimony 

 of those who claim that many species of bird are today less common than 



(263) 



