14 



THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



Something to Do — A Few Suggestions 



It is the purpose of this article to suggest certain activities and first- 

 hand studies and to invite the co-operation of bird students whether 

 members of the Illinois Audubon. Society or any similar organization. The 

 columns of the Autumn Bulletin which will go to press about October 15, 

 will be open for reports from such activities. Photographs of birds and 

 their habitats, of bird nests, census diagrams, range maps, etc. will be very 



welcome. 



All bird students need to be reminded that nothing like adequate data 

 for comprehensive life histories of many birds, even of those more or less 

 familiar, is available. In the collection of this data for life histories, it 

 is possible for almost any painstaking observer to have an honorable part. 

 For every locality and for every county or convenient unit of area there 

 should be nesting data available, from which a trustworthy list of resident 

 birds could be made. With such facts at hand, for example, a definite 

 basis for a plan for encouraging the increase of birds of unusual economic 

 importance might be possible. 



Town or City Census. 

 Suppose, then, that readers of the Bulletin co-operate in a spring and 

 summer survey of nesting conditions in areas of convenient and definite 

 size. Our first suggestion is for a nesting census for a city block. Below 

 is copied from Hodge's Nature Study and Life published by Ginn & Co. 

 (2301 Prairie Avenue, Chicago), a report of a census of nests made at 

 Worcester, Massachusetts. Can we not have similar pieces of work carried 

 on in Illinois during the season now beginning and reports carefully sum- 

 marized for the Autumn Bulletin? 



ra 



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W N I N 6 $\. 



Fig. 122. 



"1 



■V 



r 



Chart and census of a city block, Worcester, Mass., for 1898 and 1901. Stars signify nests 

 in 1898, viz., two robins, one oriole, one chipping sparrow, and one downy woodpecker. Initial 

 letters stand for nests in 1901. Note the gain, 300 per cent, in three years. Houses, trees, and 

 shrubbery are appropriately indicated; r., robin; o., oriole; b.b., bluebird; w.p., wood pewee; 

 c.c, chipping sparrow. The trees are: 



