10 



THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



Birds' Nests on the Campus at Macomb 



Editor's Note — Attention is called to Normal School Quarterly, Number 30, en- 

 titled "Birds of the Campus," issued by the Western Illinois State Normal School at 

 Macomb, in June, 1917. This reports the result of migration records and of studies 

 of nesting habits and conditions made by the students and faculty of the school in 

 1916 under the leadership of Mr. Charles W. Finley, instructor in Biology. It is a valu- 

 able report in many ways, not the least in being a model which individuals or groups 

 of observers may follow with great profit. The Bulletin can be of no greater service 

 to its readers than by giving publicity to such reports. Permission has been secured 

 from President W. P. Morgan and Mr. Finley to quote extensively from the report, 

 and portions relating to nesting observations have been selected. It is hoped that 

 excerpts thus presented will not lose unduly by removal from their context. Mr. 

 Finley and the institution he represents are to be congratulated upon this practical 

 bit of nature study. The editor has been informed that Mr. Finley and his assist- 

 ants have made similar studies of the bird life on the campus at Macomb during the 

 past season, and with even greater success than during the preceding year. It is 

 hoped that these studies will be published and available for distribution by spring, 

 1918. Since September, 1917, Mr. Finley has been serving on the staff of Lincoln 

 School of the Teachers' College at Columbia University. 



The Campus 



"For many years prior to 1900, the campus had been a pasture, the soil 

 being too poor for profitable cultivation. The central part, where the main 

 buildings now stand, was a brickyard and the repeated removal of the soil 

 exposed a yellow clay subsoil which had to be enriched before it would even 

 grow bluegrass. The removal of the soil was accompanied by the removal 

 of all vegetation so that the shrubbery and trees on most of the campus 

 have been planted there in the last fifteen years. Beginning at the south- 

 east corner of the campus and running across it in a northwest direction is 

 a deep, well-wooded ravine. In this ravine are many large native trees 

 among which are white oaks, red oaks, black oaks, burr oaks, laurel oaks, 

 shellbark hickories, river birches, basswoods and others. Among these trees 



