g THE AUDUBON BULLET 
prairie chickens, brants, crains, ducks, turkey buzzards, and some deer and 
prairie woolves. If I had time I would like to go out there and hunt two 
or three weeks and camp out. * * * *” 
Mr. Ford suggests that the “big black duck” probably was, in fact, a 
lack duck. “Brants” probably were snow geese, blue geese, or possibly 
Hutchins’s geese; at any rate they must have been different from the “wild 
geese”? which he bought at 15 cents a pair. ‘‘Crains” it is likely were sand- 
hill cranes, now, along with the prairie chicken, so scarce. that even to see 
one is an event. 
fx& ff Ff 
Metropolitan Chicago Not Popular for Birdlife 
By KARL E. BARTEL 
DURING A recent auto trip in a south-westerly direction from Chicago on 
May 26, 1942, a bird census was taken. The birds were observed by Mrs. 
Amy G. Baldwin, Alfred H. Reuss, Jr., and myself. 
The census covered a distance of 100 miles and was divided into two 
sections. Section one was within what is generally spoken of as the 
“Chicago region,” or up to 50 miles; section two, 50 to 100 miles from the 
city. Each individual bird was counted, although a few sparrows were not 
identified, and a total of 34 species was reported for both sections. The 
birds seen and the number of individuals for the two sections, listed accord- 
ing to abundance, were as follows: 
Bird Sec. 1 Sec. 2 Bird Sec. 1 Sec. 2 
Bronzed grackle....... 49 51 Indigo bunting aye re 1 
Starling’. awe ae eee A2 48 Flicker .’.:...2 eee il 2 
English sparrow...... 36 54 Quail 3... 332 0 2 
ODI oo oer ound een eee 8 30 House wren. ae 0 Za 
Meadowlark <4004..-% 9 27 Kingfisher® 22.02 Al 0 
Mourning dove........ 3 19 Field sparrow) eee 1 0 
Purple smartinee: one 14 3 Bluebird .. 2. eeeeeee 1 A 
Red-winged blackbird.. 14 Pe Blue-winged teal ...... 1 0 
GLOWi se dolee i: oda ty ee 3 13 Downy woodpecker.... 1 0 
Prairie horned lark.... 0 is Brown * thrasheraaeee i 0 
Kino bird sae ts epee 10 4 Ring-necked pheasant.. 1 0 
Dickcissel ¢.../. a... 0 fl Nighthawk <2.) eee 1 2 
Barieswalowe. actos 5 3 Killdeer  .. 4). 2.) acne 0 a 
CInimne yes witt ce os le 4 2 Tree swallow......... 0 1 
Black Stennis eee 4 0 Blue. jay... 2.20. eee 0 ul 
Bobolin keen. nny ee 3 1 Goldfinch .-.. jen 0 a} 
SONS SHALTOW a eee 2 0 —_- —— 
MICT ANG eShrike. sate fe 2 0 Total. = ae PARE Se yAlT i 
The census shows that birdlife is more abundant in the section 50 to 
100 miles from Chicago. This is not based upon only one census, as a 
number of trips have been made over the same route and previous counts 
show a few more species in the 50 to 100 mile section. 
Blue Island, Illinois 
