12 BULLETIN 396^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



creek borders 8 acres, showed a population of 110 pairs of native 

 birds and 25 pairs of English sparrows, or about double the average 

 for the State. A farm of 78 acres near Strasburg, Ohio, with about 

 the same proportion of the different fields, had 126 pairs of native 

 birds and 8 pairs of English sparrows, also about double the average. 

 A farm of 40 acres near Middletown, Conn., containing 10 acres 

 of plowed land, 3 acres of woodland, 6 acres of pasture, 12 acres 

 of orchard, and 20 acres of meadow, had a bird population of 

 165 pairs of native birds, 8 pairs of English sparrows, and 15 pairs 

 of starlings; a total of 188 pairs, or more than four times the aver- 

 age. A farm of 40 acres at New Hope, Pa., called " The Hedges," 

 from its numerous osage orange hedges, and divided into plowed 

 land 15 acres, woodland 2 acres, orchard 5 acres, and grassland 18 

 acres, supported a bird population of 136 pairs of native birds. 17 of 

 English sparrows, and 1 of the starling; a total of about four times 

 the average'. 



These examples are all of farms that are used for ordinary farm- 

 ing purposes, and where no attempt has been made to attract an 

 extra number of birds by winter feeding or by putting up nesting 

 boxes. The large bird population is due solely to absolute protec- 

 tion and to leaving abundant chances for favorable nesting sites. 



THE BER¥/YN, PA., BIRD COUNT. 



As noted in the report of the 1914 enumeration, the first published 

 bird count in the United States was that made in 1901 at Berwyn, 

 Pa., by Mr. Frank L. Burns. After a lapse of 13 years Mr. Burns 

 in 1914 repeated the count on the same area, and the results have 

 lately been published.^ His enumeration area consisted of 640 acres, 

 divided approximately into 27 per cent woodland, 16 per cent gar- 

 dens and shaded lawns, about 30 per cent plowed land, and the re- 

 mainder, about 27 per cent, covering pasture land, drives, highways, 

 and railroads. The tract is thus somewhat more favorable for birds 

 than the average of the lands covered iu 1914 and 1915 by the Bio- 

 logical Survey reports. In his second count Mr. Burns found 617 

 pairs of native birds on the 640 acres as compared with 588 pairs in 

 1901, or an average of 97 pairs of native birds to 100 acres as com- 

 pared with the 100 pairs estimated for 1914 by the Biological Survey 

 for the farms of the Northeastern States. If English sparrows are 

 included, however, Mr. Burns's total is 112 pairs to 100 acres, as com- 

 pared with the 105 pairs found by the Biological Survey in 1914. 

 Mr. Burns finds 95 pairs of English sparrows on the 640 acres, or at 

 the rate of 15 pairs to 100 acres, VN'here the Biological Survey's aver- 

 age is 5 pairs. Mr. Burns finds 15 pairs of English sparrows to each 



1 Burns, Frank L., Second Sectional Bird Census, 1914, Taken at Berwyn, Chester County, 

 Pa. Bird-Lore, XVII, 109-111, March-April, 1915. 



