472 Dr. A. L. Thomson : J^esuUs of a Stvdy of [Ibis, 



Birds may be procured for marking in two ways. Either 

 they may be marked as young birds still unable to fly, or 

 they may, when older, be trapped by any non-huri£ul means 

 and then marked and released. Notification of their sub- 

 sequent death or re-capture depends on the address which is 

 stamped on the ring. Some markers have been content with 

 mere initials, but this is very wasteful as it is obvious that 

 it must greatly reduce the number of recorded rea{)pear- 

 ances and practically exclude the possibility of records from 

 any great distance. Many rings with various insufficient 

 addresses have, indeed, been found on birds but never traced 

 to their origin although widely advertised in ornithological 

 periodicals : and there is, in any event, no great difficulty in 

 stamping a short address even on the smallest ring. In 

 addition to the address each ring should bear its own identi- 

 fication number, which is indeed the key to the whole method. 

 Some markers have used year marks (the year in figures, or 

 some arbitrary sign), but this is only possible where the 

 marking is confined to a single locality and to a single 

 species, and if the birds are all marked when young. Thus, if 

 the rings bearing a certain address are being used solely for 

 young Woodcock on a single estate, a year mark is sufiicient ; 

 but where the histories of the birds marked differ from each 

 other, separate identification is necessary. Species is not a 

 reliable factor for this purpose, in that marked birds are 

 often reported by persons quite ignorant on the subject, 

 and it is thus essential that the number on the ring 

 should be all that the marls(M' requires in order to deter- 

 mine the species and history of any marked bird of his 

 that is reported. 



The rings soon lose their brightness, especially in the case 

 of water-birds^ and are not usually visible on the birds except 

 with strong field-glasses and under favourable conditions. 

 Marking is thus in no way an encouragement to the slaughter 

 of our wild birds : the proportion of ringed individuals to 

 the whole bird population will always remain so small that 

 any shooting of birds for the sake of chance ringed specimens 

 would be ridiculous. It is also worthy of note that many 



