Such corrected dates can be used in making histograms that show the time
of primary breeding activity, or the "egg-season." All such schedules
are generalizations; data are used for a species from any year of
observation, whether 50 years ago or less than one year ago. One
advantage of such procedure is that averages and modes are thus more
nearly representative of the basic temporal adaptations of the species
involved, as is explained below.
When information on the schedule of a species from one year is lumped
with information from another year or other years, two (and ordinarily
more than two) frequency distributions are used to make one frequency
distribution. The great advantage here is that the frequency
distribution composed of two or more frequency distributions is more
stable than any one of its components. Second, the peak of the season,
the mode of egg-laying, is represented more broadly than it would have
been for any one year alone. Third, the extremes of breeding activity
are fairly shown as of minute frequency and thus of limited importance,
which would not be true if just one year were graphed. All these
considerations combine to support the idea that general schedules in
fact represent the basic temporal adaptations of a species much better
than schedules for one year only.
Variation in Breeding Seasons
In the chronology of breeding seasons of birds, there are three basic
variables: time at which seasons begin, time at which seasons end, and
time in which the major breeding effort occurs. These variables have
been examined in one population through time (Lack, 1947; Snow, 1955;
Johnston, 1956), in several populations of many species over wide
geographic ranges (Baker, 1938; Moreau, 1950; Davis, 1953), and in
several populations of one species (Lack, _loc. cit._; Paynter, 1954;
Johnston, 1954). The analysis below is concerned with breeding of many
kinds of birds of an arbitrarily defined area and with the influence of
certain ecologic and zoogeographic factors on the breeding seasons for
those several species.
THE INFLUENCE OF SEASONAL STATUS.--Here we are interested in whether a
species is broadly resident or migrant in Kansas; 70 species are
available for analysis.
_Resident Species_
Twenty-four species, furnishing 875 records of breeding, are here
considered to be resident birds in northeastern Kansas. These species
are Cooper Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Prairie Chicken, Bobwhite, Rock Dove,
Great Horned Owl, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Downy
Woodpecker, Horned Lark, Blue Jay, Common Crow, Black-billed Magpie,
Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Bewick Wren,
Mockingbird, Eastern Bluebird, Loggerhead Shrike, Starling, House
Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, and Cardinal. The distribution of completed
clutches (Fig. 1) runs from mid-January to mid-September, with a modal
period in the first third of May. Conspicuous breeding activity occurs
from mid-April to the first third of June.
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