10 THE A. UDWU BO'N’ BU; Lie ei 
The Christmas Census — 1958 
Introduction by PAuL H. Lopik 
AFTER FIVE YEARS of Tabulations, we have returned to the narrative style 
of publishing our Christmas Census Reports. The time and trouble required 
to prepare a complicated table in fine type proved to be out of proportion 
to the few additional facts to be gleaned from having all the statistics 
summarized. What really made the I.A.S. Directoirs decide to abandon the 
table, however, was the ultimatum by our printer that all such tables in 
the future, with their attendant extra typesetting, would carry a surcharge 
of $100.00 per Census! 
For the sake of continuity, we have attempted to list reports for this 
year in the same order followed in past tables. We have more reports than 
before, largely because we are no longer confined to a table of 14 columns. 
Karl Bartel, who probably has contributed more Censuses to this BULLETIN 
over the years than anyone else, recently sent your Editor a thought-pro- 
voking letter. He urged that we go back to the narrative-style Censuses of 
the past. Since this is exactly what we are doing this year, we will not give 
Mr. Bartel’s reasons in full. What he particularly opposed were the require- 
ments that all Census Reports follow National Audubon Society rules, i.e.: 
a 15-mile circle, more than two observei's, dawn-to-dusk counts in a single 
day, etc. These rules, however, have also been relaxed this year — one of the 
1958 reports is the work of one observer! Mr. Bartel wanted us to include 
such counts as observations at one feeder, or maximum counts of a given 
species in one area during the two weeks’ count period. We are open on this 
point, and would like to know how other members feel about such reports. 
It should be noted that most Illinois clubs now follow the National rules. 
All of our Reports go to the Midwest Regional Director for bird counts and 
are forwarded to the National Society; we hope that they will continue to 
be of value to the National Census, as our reports will be if they meet the 
standards which other clubs observe across the country. 
After editing the voluminous Reports that have come in (which have 
forced us to increase the size of this BULLETIN), we can only conclude that 
some new means must be found to limit and/or condense the Census. Pos- 
sibly we should exclude all Reports outside of our state. May we have your 
opinions on this also? Finally, in order to avoid repetitious listing of rarities 
in this introduction, we are setting off all unusual records in bold face type. 
And so to the Illinois Bird Census for 1958: 
fl ft ff 
Arboretum, LISLE, DUPAGE CoUNTY. Entire 800 acres of Morton Arboretum, 
the Saganashkee Slough and forest preserve to its north, and Bemis Woods 
forest preserve (in Cook County) — same as last year. Semi-open area 
15%; open fields and farm land 10%; oak woods 85%; pine and spruce 
stands 80%, river bottom 10%. Dee. 28; 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunny all 
