SECOND ANNUAL BEPOET OF BIED COUNTS IN THE U. S. 15 



abundant bird in the Xortheastern States. The reports for 1915 in 

 this part of the Union bear out the estimates for 1914 that the robin 

 is the more numerous, since the averages are 8 pairs of robins and 

 6 pairs of English sparrows for each farm. The average of all 

 reports for the two years shows 7 pairs of robins and 5^ pairs of 

 English sparrowo for each farm covered. 



VARIATIONS IN BIRD LIFE FROM YEAR TO YEAR. 



A most interesting and instructive report has been received from 

 Mrs. A. B. Morgan, of Woodstock, Vt., giving the results of enumera- 

 tions for each of the last eight ^'ears on a tract near Woodstock. The 

 tract contains 92 acres, 20 acres of which is woodland, the balance 

 being devoted to permanent pasture and the usual crops of a Ver- 

 mont farm. The conditions on the farm have scarcely changed dur- 

 ing the eight years and the bird life has not much altered — 84 pairs 

 of birds in 1915 as compared with 87 pairs in 1908 — but it is inter- 

 esting to note the wide variation in both kinds and numbers of each 

 registered in the annual counts. 



The total number of species nesting on the place in the eight years 

 aggregates 49, while the highest number in any one year is 44 and the 

 lowest 35, a range of from 90 per cent to 72 per cent of the total. 

 The average number of nesting pairs per year is 82, with variations 

 from 77 to 87, or an average variation of 3 per cent and a maximum 

 variation of only 6 per cent. These variations have been attributed 

 chiefly to the depredations of hawks. (See Table III.) 



A tract of 50 acres at Viresco, Va., came under the writer's ob- 

 servation in 1907. It consists of woodland, 21 acres; plowed land, 

 5 acres; permanent pasture, 15 acres; and the remainder, 9 acres, 

 brushy land along a stream and on a hillside. At that date much of 

 the land not in woods had lately ceased to be cultivated and was grow- 

 ing up in brush, while the underbrush had just been thoroughly 

 cleared out of all the woods. In the last eight ypars the underbrush 

 has worked back into the woods, while a great increase has taken 

 place in the brush and young trees along the stream and on some 3 

 acres that were formerly cultivated. During all the years bird 

 life has been rigorously protected, but there has been no extra bird 

 feeding either winter or summer and no putting up of bird boxes, 

 with the exception of a single small martin house; this, however, 

 was scorned by the martins, which are on several neighboring farms, 

 but was used fitfully by bluebirds, house wrens, and crested fly- 

 catchers. 



A bird count was made by the writer in each of the last five years, 

 and the results show a steady and pronounced gain in the number of 

 kinds of birds nesting about the place, and a still greater gain in the 



