10 BULLETIN 396^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



for birds much more favorable than average, showed 87 pairs of 

 23 species of native birds. A 60-acre tract of wooded hillsides 

 near Gilroy, Cal., was supporting 36 pairs of 10 species. This is 

 close to what would be expected in the Eastern States under similar 

 conditions. 



There is no place on the farm where the help of birds is more 

 needed than in the orchard, and the following counts show how the 

 birds congregate where food, shelter, and building sites are closely 

 associated. The numbers of nesting pairs in a tract near Gilroy. 

 Cal., containing an orchard of 30 acres of apricots, prunes, peaches, 

 and grapes, and about 8 acres of pasture and creek bottom, the farm 

 home and other buildings, and many large native trees, are as fol- 

 lows : Oregon towhee, 4 ; California towhee, 12 ; valley quail, 5 ; kill- 

 deer, 1 ; green heron, 3 ; California woodpecker, 3; red-shafted flicker, 

 7; western bluebird, 8; western meaclowlark, 1; Bullock oriole, 2; 

 Arkansas kingbird, 2; Traill flycatcher, 4; black phoebe, 6; Law- 

 rence goldfinch, 15; lazuli bunting, 1; barn owl, 3; dotted canyon 

 wren, 2; western winter wren, 7; long-tailed chat, 1; California 

 shrike, 2; tree swallow, 5; cliff swallow, 12; California jay, 4; Allen 

 hummingbird, 6; Avestern blue grosbeak, 1; black-headed grosbeak, 

 8 ; house finch, 18 ; western mourning dove, 6 ; v\'estern chipping spar- 

 row, 10; Pacific nighthawk, 2; russet-backed thrush, 2; western lark 

 sparrow, 7 ; green-backed goldfinch, 2 ; and English sparrow, 4 ; a 

 total of 176 pairs of 34 species on 38 acres. 



A similarly dense, though less varied, bird population in a 52-acre 

 peach orchard is shown by a count made near Port Clinton, Ohio. 

 This showed 108 pairs of common farm birds, a colony of 36 pairs 

 of purple martins, and 6 pairs of English sparrows, or a total of 

 150 pairs of 29 species. 



ESTIMATED BIRD POPULATION OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



Bird counts made in Florida show an average of 77 pairs of native 

 birds of 20 species and 5 pairs of English sparrows on 83 acres. 

 The enumeration areas average 4 per cent of plowed land, 21 per 

 cent of woodland, and the remainder open meadoAv or pasture land. 

 The average of the farms of the State is 12 per cent of plowed land 

 and 60 per cent of woodland, so that the proportion in the enumer- 

 ation areas does not at all represent average conditions in that 

 State, and the counts can not be used in estimating the average bird 

 life of the State. 



Reports from Louisiana shovv' an average of 95 pairs of birds of 

 29 species on 53 acres, of which 39 per cent is plowed land, 18 per 

 cent woodland, and 41 per cent pasture, while the average farm of 

 the State contains 87 acres, of which 28 per cent is plowed land, 

 41 per cent woodland, and 28 per cent pasture. 



