IIG 



THE OOLOGIST. 



once ."--ee tlu' tiiu- v:ilin' .siul worth of 

 such an institution, \ylicie one is al)lf, 

 :it a very moiU'rate i)i-ice, to puisne liis 

 own loved stmly iwuler the best of in- 

 structors, and in the fields and woods 

 and by the Avateis of Lake Quinsiga- 

 mond. 



Natural History students, wherever 

 they iiniy be found, could very profita- 

 bly spend their vacation; or, a l)art of 

 it.'^at this deliglitful cam]). 



Or, if too far removed from this 

 mother of Natural History Camps, why 

 they not make an eifort to establish 

 similar institutions in their own re- 

 spective localities, and i>y tlieir own 

 pietty hikes and streams? The ])ro.iect 

 ir.ay seem large at the outset, but a 

 scheme v.'ith such pleasure, education 

 and profit behind it, cannot but meet 

 \vith the greatest success. 



We w^oulU like to see the i)lan of the 

 ]^ake Quinsigamoud Natural History 

 Camp carried out in many ])laces 

 throughout the country. Is the result 

 not worth the eff irtV 



Recording the Number of Birds Observed. 



[Fniiii Tim AuU, Vol. VII, No. 2, April, ls90.] 



In an interesting article in The Auk- a 

 year ago Mr. AVitmer Stone speaks of 

 the diliiculty of estimating the number 

 of birds in a given locality, and de- 

 clares it "well-nigh impossil)le." Al- 

 though this difiiculty is, perhaps, not so 

 great as it seems, yet it has been so 

 generally recognized that almost all 

 field observers seem to have accepted 

 the ease as hopeless, and to have eon- 

 teuted themselves with entering a hird 

 in their note-books, as w^ell as in pub- 

 lished lists, as 'abundant,' 'rare,' or 

 'rather common,' words of such pleas- 

 ing indefiniteness that they seldom 

 mean the same thing to two different 

 observers, or to the same person in 

 regard to different species. The result 

 is that we have but the vaguest idea of 

 the relative abundance of different 

 birds or of the fluctuations of any one 

 species in different years or from day 

 to day through its period of migration. 



To take a complete census— except 

 perhaps during the lireeding season- 

 may be out of the question, but there is 



no reason wliy an observer should not 

 make his work exact as far as liis op- 

 jiortunities and abilities permit, — i. e., 

 why he should not keej) a record of the 

 exact niunber of lairds of each species 

 met Avith each day. This of course 

 would not re})resent the actual numi>er 

 prest'Ut in anj- locality, for varying 

 circumstances of length of time spent in 

 tlse held, extent and nature of the 

 country' co\ ered during the day, 

 weather, etc., would considerably 

 modify the results, but, by entering all 

 these facts in the ilay's journal, and 

 giving them due consideration in mak- 

 ing stil^equent (iomparisons of the 

 figures obtained, results can be reached 

 that if not exact, are at least an ap- 

 proach toward it, and of vastly more 

 value than tlie ivcord of a vague gener- 

 alization l)ased ])erhaps as much on 

 some mere accident that has stronglj' 

 impressed the imagination, as on any 

 serious consideration of the facts ol)- 

 served . 



This practice of keeping a careful 

 count has been in use for the last few 

 years among several ornithologists of 

 n)y acquaintance, and it would seem 

 worth while to urge its general adop- 

 tion among field naturalists, if it were 

 only to infuse a spirit of more scientihc 

 exactness into their tield-work. Our 

 way is to jot down in the field witli 

 pencil and paper — perhaps on the back 

 of an ohl letter — every individual bird 

 seen or heard. If birds are few, and 

 one's memory good, it nniy be possible 

 to do this all at the end of the day, but 

 for most people, and in the height of 

 the season, the best way is to stop 

 every little while — in the inevitable 

 pauses of waiting for sonu; bird to show 

 himself or to sing again— enter the 

 species not already on the list, and 

 mark against each name the number 

 seen or heard since the last entry. 

 Care must be taken to make due allow- 

 ance for individuals already previously 

 observed during the sanu- day, in order 



