6 TH BE +AU DU BrOUGN? Be U Lelie) aoe 
Christmas Gensus)—— bogs 
THE I.A.S. Birp Count for 1955 contains a number of significant re- 
visions. Three new areas are shown in this year’s table, and three pre- 
vious ones (all from Indiana) had to be omitted to make room. The new 
areas are Channahon (reported prior to 1954, but omitted last year be- 
cause it did not conform with the specifications of the National Audubon 
Society) ; Princeton, in north central Illinois, where the Society held its 
Annual Meeting last year; and Seaton, about 40 miles southwest of Rock 
Island. Thus, our geographical coverage of the state is more nearly complete. 
It was not difficult to make a choice about the areas to be dropped, as 
all of these were outside of the state: Jasper-Pulaski Game Preserve, 
about 60 miles southeast of Chicago; Michigan City, Indiana, north of 
Jasper-Pulaski on the edge of Lake Michigan; and Morocco, Indiana, near 
the state line east of Kankakee. Since these areas are published as part of 
the annual report of the Indiana Audubon Bulletin, the data for them wil! 
not be lost as far as our national bird counts are concerned. 
We still have not found it possible to lst the totals for previous years 
in the table for comparison. Perhaps this can be done every five years, 
as a much larger table will be required. However, we can summarize a few 
of the changes for your edification. The total number of species is fair y 
stable: 115 this year, 117 in 1954, 116 in 1953. The total of individuals 
shows more variation: 124,341 this year, 201,063 last year, 108,393 in 1953. 
Most interesting of all are the changes in the “rarities” from year to 
year. Missing from this Census are the Snow Goose, Blue Goose, Broad- 
winged Hawk, Ferruginous rough-legged Hawk, Prairie Chicken, Iceland 
Gull, Franklin’s Gull, Bonaparte’s Gull, Little Gull, Northern Horned Lark, 
Brown Thrasher, Brewer’s Blackbird, Pine Grosbeak, and White-winged 
Crossbill. Some of these, like the gulls and crossbills, are accidentals, 
straying into our state in some winters, not in others. But the disap- 
pearance of the Prairie Chicken from this Report is not an accident; it is 
a tragedy. Only one area in Illinois — Olney — has been reporting a count 
for this bird; there were 26 in 19538, one in 1954, and now none. If any 
species ever needed special protection in this state, this is certainly the one. 
But on the brighter side, we can report some very unusual species, 
either for this state or for this time of the year: the Black-crowned Night 
Herons seen at Channahon; the Red-necked Grebe and Surf Scoter seen 
near Indiana Dunes; the Pigeon Hawk found at the Arboretum; the Osprey, 
Short-eared Owl, Catbirds and Savannah Sparrow seen in the Tri-Cities 
area; the Hermit Thrush and another Short-eared Owl reported by the 
Evanston group; and the Vesper, Chipping and Fox Sparrows seen at 
White Pines. All of these species have been added to the chart this year. 
Other changes in the table reflect the latest gyrations of the committee 
on nomenclature of the A.O.U. Frankly, we can see no great progress in 
changing the name of the “Common Crow” to “American Crow,” nor the 
“Northern Shrike” to “Gray Shrike,” nor the “Starling” to “Common Star- 
ling.” After all, what is more common than the Starling these days? And 
knowing that our pesky city sparrow came from England, we can see no 
point in changing the “English Sparrow” to “House Sparrow.” But in 
