Egg and Nestling Destruction 



BY JULIAN K. POTTER 



Fob Beveral years past I have been interested in gathering 

 data with the view of determining approximately the number 

 of nests destroyed, before they ever fulfil their mission — that of 

 keeping the young and eggs in safety until the young reach the 

 fledgling stage of their existence. How often have we in visit- 

 ing a nest found its contents missing or the nest destroyed! So 

 often indeed that we are led to believe that the majority of nests 

 never fulfil their mission. 



The ground covered in this report lies almost entirely within 

 one mile of the limits of Camden, New Jersey, a city of 100,- 

 000 inhabitants, and receives no protection whatever, not even 

 a "No Trespass" sign being in evidence. Of course it was 

 impossible to keep track of every nest found and those tabulated 

 are by no means all that were discovered, but refer to those that 

 were actually known to have fulfilled their oflBce or to have 

 failed. Any nest that there was any doubt about was cast oS 

 the list. For this reason, no doubt, the List of percentages is 

 somewhat inaccurate and also because too few nests of some 

 species were examined. Nevertheless some interesting facts 

 were brought to light. Investigations were made during the 

 years 1912-13-14-15. 



From the table it may be seen, as one would naturally 

 expect, the hollow-tree dwellers show the highest percentage 

 of successes (82%). This is followed by the ground nesters, 

 successes (51%), with the tree and bush dwellers coming last 

 with the lowest percentage of successes (43%). The trees in 

 which the woodpeckers and Starlings had their nests were 

 almost without exception quite high and out of reach of human 

 interference. This accounts to a great extent for the very high 

 average of these birds. 



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