SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF BIRD COUNTS IN THE U. S. 11 



The enumerations from Texas average 91 pairs of birds of 21 

 species on 60 acres, composed of 43 per cent plowed land, 17 per 

 cent woodland, and 40 per cent pasture; while the average farm of 

 the State contains 270 acres, divided into 15 per cent plowed land, 

 25 per cent woodland, and 60 per cent pasture. 



The average of all counts received from the Southern States, 

 North Carolina, Arkansas, and Oklahoma to Florida and Texas, is 

 76 pairs of birds of 23 species on a farm of 58 acres, which consists 

 of 33 per cent plowed land, 2 per cent hay land, 24 per cent wood- 

 land, and 41 per cent meadow and pasture land. The average farm 

 for this section contains 120 acres, divided into 24 per cent plowed 

 land, 2 per cent hay land, 35 per cent woodland, and 39 per cent 

 meadow and pasture. The enumeration areas thus differ too radi- 

 cally from the average farm conditions to allow safe generalizations, 

 and yet it is worthy of notice that the average for the census areas 

 in this southern section is 131 pairs of nesting birds to 100 acres, 

 while for the Northeastern States the corresponding figure is 125 

 pairs, and for the Plains region 125 pairs. There is probably more 

 than a mere coincidence in the close agreement of these figures, and 

 they seem to indicate that on the average the farmhouse area and 

 the approximately^ 60 acres surrounding it support about the same 

 bird population — 76 pairs of nesting birds — in all the States east 

 of the one hundredth meridian. 



There is still left unsolved the problem of the bird population on 

 the areas in the South and in the Plains region which are not in- 

 cluded in the reports. These areas in the Northeastern States con- 

 stituted only 41 per cent of the total land of the farms, while in the 

 South they form 52 per cent of the whole, and in the Plains region 

 81 per cent. 



From the 59 per cent of the land covered by the count it is 

 possible in the Northeastern States to estimate with fair accuracy 

 the birds on the 41 per cent not covered, but it is not at all safe 

 to generalize in the South, with less than half the farm area repre- 

 sented by the count, and still less so in the Plains region, where 

 less than a fifth of the area is included. 



THE NUMBER OF BIRDS CAN BE INCREASED. 



The most important fact brought out by the 1914 count was 

 that the average bird population on the farms of the United States 

 can be largely increased by protection and furnishing food and 

 shelter. The 1915 count presents several more instances of a nu- 

 merous bird population following well-directed efforts for its in- 

 crease. A farm of 65 acres near Westerville, Ohio, comprising 

 plowed land 23 acres, hay land 22 acres, pasture 5 acres, orchard 

 5 acres, house and garden plot 2 acres, and swamp and wooded 



