Excerpt from The School, Vol. 20: February 1932

In the accompanying charts C means the bird is common, FC means the bird is fairly common, and R means the bird is rare. A bird is con sidered common when an observer may go to a locality favourable to the particular bird with the assurance that he will see it. A bird is con sidered fairly common when the observer's chance of seeing the bird is good but not certain. A bird is considered rare when the chances are against the observer seeing the bird. It must be noticed, however, that the chances vary from date to date. Thus the Florida gallinule is rare from April 15 - May 1, fairly common from May l - September 15, and common from September 15 - October 15. The change from rare' to fairly common to common does not change overnight, of course; the status given is therefore the status of most Of the period under con sideration. The status near the beginning and end of the period may be somewhat in error, and the status in the preceding (or following) chart should be taken into consideration. As the abundance of birds of any given species varies from year to year, due 'to actual changes in numbers and due to the encroachments of civilization on their natural habitats, this column must be regarded as merely suggestive. Birds labelled rare'may be locally common; for example, the black tern is quite common at Hamilton Bay during the summer. Consequently if a pupil reports a rare bird, do not disbelieve him (or her). Suggest more common birds with which the particular rare bird might be con fused. In the course of defending his rare record the pupil will probably either prove that he was right or discover his error.

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