16 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



for a year.) Note what he says about sparrows and cats and pieces of 

 oil paper and puddles of mud, and about putting up boxes and keeping 

 fresh water handy at all times, etc. Then go and do likewise. 



Study of "Primitive" Areas. 



Still another suggestion of a similar nature has to do with the study 

 of more or less undisturbed areas where man has yet done little harm or, 

 what usually amounts to the same thing, made any "improvements." Here 

 is included remnants of prairie and forest, areas of virgin forest, swamp 

 areas, etc. As a model for a study of this kind we may cite a Bulletin of 

 the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History for September, 1915, the 

 author of which, Mr. Thomas L. Hankinson, is head of the department 

 of biology in the Eastern Illinois Normal School at Charleston. The com- 

 plete bulletin can doubtless be obtained by addressing the State Laboratory 

 at Urbana. Through the courtesy of Mr. Hankinson and of Professor 

 S. A. Forbes, Director of the Laboratory, Mr. Francis G. Blair, State 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction, was permitted to reprint the major 

 portion of this under the title of "Notes and Observations on Birds" in 

 Circular No. 97, entitled "Arbor and Bird Days, Illinois, 1916." This 

 circular which is of recent issue has been widely distributed among the 

 schools of the state. Copies may be obtained by addressing State Superin- 

 tendent Blair at Springfield. 



As noted by Mr. Blair, the plan Mr. Hankinson followed in making 

 these observations can be used by any teacher in the public schools (and by 

 a great many other people, too, let us add) . Two areas were chosen bv Mr. 

 Hankinson, a prairie area which is a bit of the right-of-way of the T. St. L. 

 & W. R. R. near Charleston, and a forest area composing a part of a farm, 

 also near Charleston. These areas were not unusually favorable for bird 

 study and the interest in the article is in the suggestive way in which 

 observations are recorded and correlated. 



Comparison of Nesting Records. 



In adding to what was said in the beginning about nesting records and 

 resident birds, reference might be made to an article in the Wilson Bulletin 

 for December, 1915, entitled "A Two-Year Nesting Record in Lake 

 County, Illinois," the authors of which, Colin Sanborn and Walter Goelitz, 

 were, at the time of collection of the data, high school boys at Highland 

 Park. The nests of 71 species are there described. The material in the 

 article is of unusual value and the. manner of making the records is worthy 

 of imitation. Two specimen records follow : 



34. Cowbird, May 14, 1914. A towhee nest found on this date con- 

 tained one towhee egg and eight cowbird eggs. About fifty of the (various 

 kinds of) nests found during 1914 and 1915 held cowbird eggs. 



37. Meadowlark, May 5, 1914. Nest and six eggs found in the Skckie 

 Valley. All nests found here have had the entrance on the south side. (8 

 nests examined.) 



