Bird lore - Project Puffin

402 Bird - Lore
lar in character, and illustrated, which for
several years past have attracted large
and attentive audiences. Many of these
are given by men eminent in the department
of knowledge of which they speak, or
as explorers or travelers; but, if such a
speaker is lacking, Mr. Madison himself
takes the platform. The program offered
for the present year is varied and attractive,
and in addition to it Miss Magoon
will give weekly talks to children. The
subjects are widely diversified, but it all
helps, for the more a person learns of, and
gets to enjoy, nature, the more certainly
will he be a good conservationist. Mr.
Madison's office is headquarters for the
Junior Audubon work in Rhode Island,
and in this line of effort he has been
accomplishing large results.
Stuart Acres as a Bird Community
Some of the most important work in the
field of bird- cultivation is done by men
'unknown to fame' until chance discloses
the excellent results of their wisdom and
energy. A notable example of this is Mr.
F. A. Stuart, who has been quietly dotting
his estate of 1,678 acres near Marshall,
Michigan, with bird-boxes by the hun-
dred (1,434 at last accounts), and doing it
with such scientific precision and care that
he has obtained most gratifying results.
He began to outfit his property as a birdsanctuary
no longer ago than March,
1914; but so intelligently were the prepara-
tions made, and so responsive have been
the birds, that, although 19 15 was an
unfavorable season, on June 13 of this
year he had the happiness to find 292
bird-families with eggs of young domiciled
in his tenements, not to mention the great
number breeding in wild fashion in his
trees, bushes, and fields. About half of
these were Martin families, and of the
remainder 52 were Bluebirds, 33 Spar-
rows, 32 Tree Swallows, and 5 Wrens, but
we are told that wild Wrens were exceedingly
numerous.
These figures are neither guesses nor
estimates, but the result of close acquaint-
ance with the facts, and the detailed
records of inspection lie before the writer,
covering the exact number of nests, eggs,
or young found in each box on every one
of the six old farms combined in the
present estate of Stuart Acres. Add these
figures together and one gets the foregoing
summary.
Such inspections as this are made every
twenty-one days during the spring and
summer months, and a minute record is
kept of whatever is found—and it is no
small job to keep informed of what is
going on in almost fifteen hundred birdhouses.
That only about one in five was
occupied this season seems a little dis-
appointing to Mr. Stuart; but he accounts
for it by the fact that probably too many
are near farm-buildings. He finds that
those more remote from buildings are more
freely used, especially by Tree Swallows
and Bluebirds. The boxes at a distance
from buildings are mounted on fence-posts,
or on iron gas-pipe eight or ten feet
high. Many boxes are also placed at the
edge of timber-lots, and a few in the inte-
Robins and Phoebe-
rior of the woods. •
birds, by the way, are not counted, although
shelves and brackets are put up
for their accommodation.
Despite Mr. Stuart's deductions, the
success achieved is certainly noteworthy,
and should serve as a model for the many
other masters of rural property who might
well imitate his methods.
New Members
The names of new members, who were
enrolled between September i and Octo-
ber 19, 1916, are entered in the general
list printed in this number at the end of
the Secretary's Annual Report.