The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-06-08
WORLDS RECORD OF BIRDS.
Fifty-Nine Pairs of Nesting on Single
Acre Of Maryland Farm.

The worlds record for density OF
bird population is held by farm with
in ten miles of the national capital
near Bethesda, Maryland. 1t is own
ed by Mr.. Gilbert H. Grosyenor, the
director and editor of the National
Geographic society.
In 1913 Mr.. Grosyenor bought a farm
of one hundred acres half in forest
and half in field, about four miles from
the District OF Columbia, moving there /.
early in the spring.
| Being interested in the work of the |
Audubon societies, he determined to
| see what he and his family could do to |
get birds around the home. He had |
such success that Dr. II. W. Henshaw, |
chief of the United States biological |
| survey of the department of agricul- |
tural became interested and delegat- |
ed DR.. Wells w. Cooke to visit the
Grosvenor farm.
DR.. Cooke found so many birds there
that he suggested q census of those
| living on an acre or two adjacent to
the house, as he thought the count
would establish a worlds record. Upl
to that time the record was held by q
family at Chevy Chase, Maryland, who
had attracted thirteen pairs of birds to
half an acre.
The prospect of establishing a
worlds record was so inviting to the
Grosvenor family that they took a cen
sus Of the nesting birds on an acre adj
joining their house and barns, with the
result that they found lifty-nine pairs
of birds with young or eggs in the nest
on that acre. the highest number of
land birds inhabiting one acre that has
yet been reported to the department of
agriculture or TO any Audubon society
similar census was made of second
acre. and it was found that this acre
had thirty-throe pairs of nesting birds
In an article contributed to Bird
Lore" the bi-monthly organ of the
Audubon societies OF the United States
| Mr.. GrosvenOr tells fascinating story
of the birds which have come to dwell
with them at wild Acres" as his farm
is named.
''Wild Acres is a typical Maryland
farm, with an old.fashioned farmhouse
|
Chard. with a vegetable garden, hedges
and open fields. Surrounding the fields
Is a tract of fifty acres in woods. with
| n beautiful stream and several springs
scattered around in both the fields and
the woods.
The bird census taken in the week Of
| June 18th to June 2lst. 1915 showed
that on the first acre they had one pair
OF flickers, one pair of blackbirds, one
of yellow warblers. two of orchard
orioles, two Of catbrds one of song
sparrows, two Of chipping sparrows,
one of phoebes, fourteen OF house
wrens, seven of robins, one of king
birds and twenty-sX Of martins.
On the second acre there were one
pair each of song sparrows, Carolina
wrens fickers, Maryland.throats,
brown thrashers, catbirds, chipping
sparrows, screech owls and towhees.
There were also eighteen pairs OF mar
tins. four of house wrens. and two OF
robins.
81 attribute our success primarily
writes Mr. Grosyenor TO shooting the
English sparrows and driving the cats
away. to putting up many boxes, tC
keeping fresh water handy al all times
etc. We do everything We can for th'
comfort Of our birds; for instance, W,
put on twigs little pieces of the oilet
paper that our butter was wrapped in
and We left mud in convenient place
for the martins. The catbirds used n
oiled paper for their nests, in fact
they used all kinds of scraps. Imagn
the delight Of the family, when, on e.
aiming one of the catbirds' nests i
the autumn, we found one Of the chi
dren's hair.ribbons and also a piece {
: an old dress of the baby!
I'VE had read great deal abol
how tame birds become when they al
3a- protected but we were constant
tn. amazed at the quickness with whic
by they perceived the care taken of 'her
Ist. Perhaps the most remarkable nest VIZ
,ay that of phoebe. which was built II
his | der the cornice of the piazza with
reach OF my hand. We had lit
school in the morning at the hous
' and ten children were continually ru
ming up and down the piazza shoutir
| dl Alt Nup VI Autll NulCtSf bAl u
- phoebe went on building her nest, thC
Matched her eggs and fed her youI
without fear. though she could s,
every one and everyone could see he
81 was also surprised to find no
friendly birds, even of the same spe
les, can become. For instance, we h;
fourteen pairs of wrens on sing
acre, some of the nests being not mo
than fifteen feet apart. We also h,
robins nests only twelve yards apa
The buebirds on the other hand, {
not like each other, and would not t
crate another pair Of bluebirds nea
err than one hundred yards.
"The first year we had no flicker
but there was pair nesting in an o
EIAHT n,II1T nj nm