328 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 2 



problems have only recently accumulated in adequate quantity, even 

 for those species which from the beginning have received most 

 attention. 



As a means of illustrating the growth of the project — which reflects 

 also the great interest in this means of investigation that has de- 

 veloped among the bird students of the continent — an examination 

 of Table 1, showing the gross results, will be of interest. The fiscal 

 years are those of the Federal Government, that is, beginning July 1 

 and ending June 30. 



Table 1. — Progress of bird handing in America 



I 



1 As applied to tlie bird -banding work a "return" is the record of a banded bird retrapped from tlie same 

 or any other station during or following the succeeding migration period, and also banded birds that are 

 killed, either accidentally or otherwise, regardless of the elapsed time since they were banded. 



2 Approximate. 



' The reduced number of return records forlthe fiscal year 1932 is explained by the reduction of the shooting 

 season for waterfowl from 3 months to 1 month in the fall of 1931. 



When the work was started it was natural that those species to 

 be banded in largest numbers should be the common frequenters of 

 our dooryards, usually easily captured by the traps and methods 

 then known. The results of the pioneer work of Dr. S. Prentiss 

 Baldwin (1919) involved the use of traps originally developed by 

 the Biological Survey for the control of English sparrows. His 

 report became the first textbook and the foundation upon which the 

 structure of future activities was laid. It was immediately obvious, 

 however, that with our great and varied avifauna, there existed a 

 vast field to tax the ingenuity of station operators in devising effi- 

 cient means for bringing additional species within the scope of the 

 work. The capture of the ground feeders, which respond readily 

 to cereal baits is a comparatively simple matter, but the insect feeders 

 and particularly those whose field of action is chiefly in the tree tops 

 ])resented a much more difficult problem. 



The large and interesting family of wood warblers for several 

 years defied the efforts of station operators to trap them. Many 

 elaborate traps were worked out and pulled high in the trees by 

 means of endless ropes and pulleys, while bait items ran a long 

 gamut, mostly without success. Finally it was discovered that 

 •' live " water, that is, water in a state of motion, had a potent at- 



