Wilson — On Lake Geneva Birds. 47 



southern part of it, and he certainly spends most of his time 

 in the gardens in our own block, where are many fruit trees 

 and probably a greater variety of food than in the park, 

 whose arboreal fauna consists mainly of the soft maples, 

 Acer dasycarpum. 



That anything of much scientific value has as yet been 

 gained from such individual acquaintance is not claimed and 

 that anything of great value will come is not certain, but 

 what it means to the bird student and bird lover, to have his 

 individual friends return to his ken year after year will be 

 difficult to over-estimate, and the value he will set oii such 

 individual acquaintance will probably be far beyond that of any 

 actual gain he may make from the acquaintance, just as we 

 value our human friends, not for what they are, or may be 

 to humanity, but for what their friendship means to us. 



Is there a more enticing field opening before us than this 

 one of individual bird acquaintances? 



SUMMER BIRDS AT LAKE GENEVA, WIS. 



BURTIS H. WILSON. 



During the summer of 1907 it was my great privilege to 

 spend the two weeks from July 6th to 20th at the Y. M. C. A. 

 encampment at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. This beautiful lake 

 lies near the southern boundary of Wisconsin and about 35 

 miles west of Lake Michigan. It is an irregular shaped body 

 of water, about 7 miles long from east to west, with a shore- 

 line of about 28 miles. At its widest point it is about iy2 miles 

 wide. Bordered by high bluffs, the tops of which are rolling, 

 cultivated farm lands, the lake lies much below the level of 

 the surrounding country. There are three small towns along 

 the lake shore, while a great part of the bluffs and shore of 

 the lake are occupied by summer cottages, camps, and im- 

 proved park lands belonging to country clubs. In some places 

 the bluffs are overgrown with heavy underbrush, but along 

 most of the shore the underbrush has been cleared awav, 



