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INCREASE AND DECREASE IN SUMMER 

 EESIDENTS. 



Report on the 1913 Inquiry. 



BY 



M. VAUGHAN, m.a., m.b.o.u. 



As this report has been drawn up on the same hnes 

 as that issued last year (Vol. VI., pp. 298-311), it seems 

 scarcely necessary to explain in detail the principles 

 that have been followed. This year only 67 observers 

 responded to the invitation, while last year 116 reports 

 were received, and it may be as well to point out that 

 of these 67, only 9 based their answers on the exact 

 number of birds seen or counted, 19 on their general 

 impression, while in the rest of the schedules this query 

 was ignored, so that it is clear that the value of the 

 information received varies considerably. 



Besides this, it was an exception when an answer 

 was received to query 3, " Were the numbers in 1913 

 above or below the average ? " Therefore in many cases 

 it has not been possible to decide whether the numbers 

 of any given species in 1913 were above or below the 

 average, and this naturally detracts from the value 

 of the report as a whole. 



This year the returns do not cover so much ground 

 and few counties have been worked with any degree 

 of thoroughness. Kent, Sussex, Cheshire, Lancashire, 

 Hampshire and Yorkshire have been well represented ; 

 Staff ordsliire, Warwickshire, Northumberland, Essex and 

 Surrey fairly so, but other counties have either been 

 omitted, or represented by only one observer, and it 

 goes without saying that it is impossible for a single 

 observer to do justice to a whole county. 



In these circumstances, with such scanty material to 

 work on, wide generalizations are out of place ; from 



