24 BULLETIN 1165, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



with shade trees and several large fruit trees. Here the English 

 sparrow is outranked by four native species — the house wren, showing 

 17 pairs; the purple grackle, 20; the catbird, 21; and the robin, 31: 

 while the 14 pairs of wood thrushes just balance it. In one yard of 

 half an acre the owner found 20 nests belonging to 12 species of birds, 

 the most numerous being 4 of the catbird, which was the densest bird 

 population reported during the period under discussion. 



Comparable with the Chevy Chase area is one of 25 acres near the 

 center of the village of Cloverdale, Ala., where 179 pairs of 11 species 

 were found breeding. This again refutes the common belief that the 

 presence of human kind is inimical to a large avian population. The 

 Cloverdale report shows an average of 716 pairs on 100 acres; that at 

 Chevy Chase, 913 pairs. In the former case, however, the gregarious 

 English sparrow formed a much larger proportion of the bird life, the 

 110 pairs found being over 61 per cent of the total, while at Chevy 

 Chase, where the English sparrow has been somewhat " discouraged, " 

 this species forms less than 7 per cent of the nesting population. 



The high records for density of bird population above cited are, it 

 will be noted, all on suburban or park land. So far the highest record 

 for land actually farmed concerns 45 acres near Warren, K. I. In 

 1916 this land had 14 acres in orchard, 20 acres in swamp and brushy 

 pasture, about 1 acre in grove (otherwise no woods for several miles), 

 and the remaining 10 acres surrounding the house and barn, where 

 there are a few large trees, were planted to garden truck. On this 

 tract 163 pairs of birds were found to nest, a rate of 362 pairs to 100 

 acres. In 1920, 10 acres of orchard had been taken out and the land 

 planted to corn, but the tract still sheltered 154 pairs of birds, or 342 

 pairs to 100 acres. 



This very dense population is explained by supplementary informa- 

 tion regarding 65 acres of adjacent territory. About 60 acres of the 

 surrounding; land are used for market-gardening, and contain very few, 

 if any, nesting birds. It is, therefore, probable that the birds found 

 nesting on the 45 acres of the count were practically all those on 110 

 acres. This would make the averages 148 and 140 pairs to the hun- 

 dred acres, somewhat above the average for New England, but not 

 abnormally high. 



BIRD LIFE OF MARSHLAND. 



Two series of reports from widely separated localities, each cover- 

 ing the six years, 1914 to 1919, touch upon the problem of the bird 

 life about permanent marsh. Each area contained about 10 acres 

 of marshy land, but the two were so dissimilar in character that they 

 are hardly comparable. 



Near Whiting, Ind., D. H. Boyd made counts on a 19-acre tract 

 of land divided as follows: 1 acre of small timber, scrub oak, wild 

 cherry, elm, and poplar; 8 acres of brush, narrow-leaved willow, and 

 sumac : 1 acre of cat-tails; and 9 acres of wild hay and rushes, partially 

 inundated in spring. Bird life here was exceedingly abundant, 

 nearly four and a half times that found to be the average for that part 

 of the country. In the six years the number of species nesting on this 

 tract ranged from 22 to 38, averaging 27, the total species for the 

 period being 55. The number of pairs has varied from 87 to 120, 

 with an average of 107. While the birds nesting on this tract have 

 been fairly constant both in the number of species and pairs, there 



