124 



med Sagen, overalt imellem disse Steder, vil vi komme til sikre 

 Resultater med Hensyn til en af Fugletrækkets mange Hemme- 

 ligheder: Rejsevejene. 



FROM THE BIRD MARKING STATION AT VIBORG, 

 DANMARK. 



BY 



H.CHR. C. MORTENSEN. 



(SUMMARY.) 



Historical remarks. Al the beginning of the last century 

 V. der Heyden Baak made an experiment on migration, marking 

 young ones of tamed White-fronted Goose ^ (Anser albifrons), wtiich he 

 gave a brass collar and then released. This experiment incited me in 

 1890 lo commence my bird marking. My first attempls with bands 

 of zinc, on which were written place and jear and which were 

 bent round the leg of Starling (Stnriuis inilgaris) failed. So, in 

 1899, I used stamped bands of aluminium on 165 Sturnus vulgaris. 



In England young ones of game-birds had been marked with 

 an aluminium ring on the leg since 1891 on the eslate of Alnwich 

 Castle (Norlhumberland)^. 



The novelly of my experiment then was: 



a) Fullgrown wild birds were ringed on the foot just before 

 leaving. 



b) Each bird got a number, referring to detailed information 

 in my journal with regard to place and date of capture, 

 plumage etc. 



c) A great number of birds was marked. 



d) The experiment was notified in foreign scientific periodicals 

 of consideration^, in a widely circulaled Danish weekly paper 

 and in the daily press. 



Il was my hope, when a ringed bird was killed and the case 

 was published in a newspaper, thai a reader of one of Ihe above 

 menlioned periodicals should happen to see il and kindly inform me. 



My experiment has later been adopled bolh by ornithological 

 societies and by private persons and carried out on a much larger 

 scale than I have been able to do. Four years after the first public 

 account of my bird-ringing, Thienemann began U903) to mark 

 Crows (Corviis cornix) at Rossitlen ; Ungarische Ornithologische Cen- 

 trale (O.Herman and Jac. Schenk) followed in 1908, British Birds 

 (H. F. Wither by) and the University of Aberdeen (A. Landsbo- 

 rough Thomson) in 1909, and now ringing of migratory birds is 



1 Rhea, 2. H., 1849, p. 10. 



" Country Life, 1909, 27th Febr., p. 32:i 



« Vide p. 101. 



