ie rete AU DrU bs OeNe bvU Ly OLSEN 13 
Purple Martins in Blue Island 
AN ANNUAL SURVEY of the purple martin population nesting in his vicinity 
has been one of the projects which Karl E. Bartel, the Blue Island bird 
bander, has set up for himself. His records now cover the nine years since 
1936. The number of active houses has varied from 28 to 40 in service in 
each year out of a total of 70 locations during the entire period, and the 
number of nesting pairs of martins has varied from a low of 151 to last 
year’s total of 330, as shown by the following table: 
Average 
Year Locations Nesting pairs per house 
REE ei Sate let Ramee DOL eee eles AR Rie. af eS 6.65 
1D 8 (ere rer stake ce AO mea are 1S ara eden rec 5.40 
(OR a = os ts Beek ee PAS Ip Seo Ras ed Soe LA Dl Deeper iets ceo 7.03 
es 0 epee enc c ee Sa Ae ee er TAS WAG Petia oN tae Pe 8.13 
A (men (eats aS Palais ss yen es 266 or we oo ae 7.60 
gO IR I So ARR a ae Shelnc ald Pemkeueieaces VE DAE «op ce yt 7.68 
LRDE A Miter ty cate es OES od Re ee Oni SUD RN Meta eee 7.62 
MO Serie re hone teak ASR Meaty ee ee LO SER wae: CoM 
1S EN Ord ee re SOE eh er eae j2 PSUR Wate eae 9.43 
LOPAL BU Loree ay oe 226 0 a tea 7.60 
The average for each location shows a very consistent level, except for 
a small rise in 1939, until the past year, when there was a very definite 
increase. This did not come from the houses that had been occupied for 
several years, but rather from those which had been erected in the last two 
or three years. Some of these increased their population by from 50% to as 
much as 90%, thus more than offsetting the loss from houses that were 
taken down. 
ft ft ft 
Christmas -Gensus — 1944 
ONCE MORE the season of the Christmas census has come and gone, and in 
passing found many of our bird students in the field in spite of the unusual 
amount of snow and temperatures that tempted one to stay close to the 
radiators. That those who did join in the search were rewarded is shown 
in the lists sent in, which show a combined total of 75 species and about 
15,000 individuals from nine reports, as compared with 45 species and less 
than 4,000 individuals from seven reports in 19438. This is partly to be 
credited to Springfield, not present last year, which shows some 18 species 
not on any other list and is the site of a rather large winter flock of starlings. 
We also give a report (not included in the totals) from one of our 
former Chicago bird students which was gathered under quite different 
conditions of weather and habitat. We do not know whether Lieut. Collias 
is trying to make us envious or just whetting our appetites for the time 
when we may move about more freely, but he is quite definitely doing both. 
