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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 396 



Contribution from the Bureau of Biological Survey 

 HENRY W. HENSHAW, Chief. 



Washington, D. C. 



October 23, 1916 



SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF BIRD COUNTS IN 

 THE UNITED STATES, WITH DISCUSSION OF RE- 

 SULTS. 



By Wells W. Cooke, Assistant Biologist^ 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Plans for the 1915 counts 4 



Results in the Northeastern States 4 



Results in other sections 7 



The number of birds can be in- 

 creased 11 



The Berwyn, Pa., bird count 12 



Page. 



Some notable reports 13 



Variations in bird life from year to 



year 15 



The possibilities from bird protec- 

 tion 17 



Summary 20 



INTRODUCTION. 



A preliminary enumeration of the birds on many farms of the 

 United States, made during the summer of 1914, was so satisfactory 

 and the information obtained so iijiportant that it was decided to 

 repeat the work in 1915. In the second effort it was planned to 

 covel" as many different kinds of country as possible and particu- 

 larly to secure more records and more reliable data concerning birds 

 in the Gulf States and in the region from the Plains westward. 



The returns from the 1915 bird count were on the whole very satis- 

 factory. As in 1914, the largest number of reports from any single 

 section came from the Northeastern States — that is, the States north 

 of North Carolina and east of Kansas — but they are particularly 

 gratifying because of their close agreement with returns of 1914 

 from the same section. When an enumeration of birds was first 

 suggested the project was the subject of much good-natured banter 

 and some criticism from those who declared the scheme utterly 

 visionary. 



1 Shortly after writing this report, and following a very brief illness, Professor Cooke 

 died, March 30, 1916. He was a prominent ornithologist and the foremost American 

 authority on the migration of birds. — -Editor. 



Note. — This second report on the number and relative abundance of wild birds (see 

 Dept. Bull. 187, issued Feb. 11, 1915) is for the information of workers and others inter- 

 ested in the protpction and increase of birds. 

 47849°— Bull. 396 — 16 1 



