Massachusetts Audubon Society 7 



BIRD BANDING 



Since the first attempt at Bird Banding considerable development and 

 progress have been made. It has become important enough to have been 

 taken up by the Bureau of Biological Survey. U.S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C, and under its guidance valuable results should be ob- 

 tained. The Survey has succeeded in interesting to date about 100 observers, 

 to whom approximately 5000 bands have been issued. 



Some of the questions to be answered by Bird Banding are as follows: 



Do birds return to the same nesting area season after season? 



Do nesting birds ever use the same nest and have the same mate season 

 after season? 



Do certain birds rear a second brood in the same nest or in the same 

 region as the first brood? 



Do yomig birds return to breed in the same spot in which they were 

 reared? 



Do migrating birds stop off at the same feeding places en route year 

 after year? 



Do certain individual birds come and go over the same migration 

 routes? 



How long do birds live? Etc., etc. 



The Biological Survey is now considering plans to secure the permanent 

 co-operation of Universities, Colleges and Agricultural Schools throughout 

 the country in Bird Banding, and when plans have been developed more 

 definitely and a larger number of organizations and individuals have become 

 enrolled in this effort, the volume of data and results should accumulate 

 rapidly. 



I take this opportunity to solicit volunteers in Massachusetts and in 

 New England to undertake this work with the ultimate purpose of forming 

 a Bird Banding Association to meet regularly to forward and systematize 

 this work. Will you join? 



Bands, record blanks, licenses, books of instruction and literature will 

 be furnished free by the Biological Survey. 



As a result of only 10 weeks activity at Cohasset this year and with 

 but one trap the writer was able to trap and to band from nests 75 birds 

 representing 15 species. 



If you are interested in this plan and would like further data, write 

 either to the Bureau of Biological Survey at Washington, D. C, or to the 

 undersigned. 



Yours very truly, 

 4 Post Office Square, Boston, Mass. Lawrence B. Fletcher. 



CLOSED AREAS IN NEW MEXICO 

 Nine hundred and forty thousand acres of the best hunting and fishing- 

 grounds in New Mexico have been closed by order of the state game com- 

 mission. The order is the most sweeping ever issued in the state. The 

 closed streams and grounds will b(^ posted at once. Hunting in the posted 

 areas is a misdemeanor and is punished by a fine of not less than $25 or 

 more than $300, or imprisonment in the county jail for not less than five 

 days or more than thirty days. 



Ten areas in the vicinity of the Rio Grande are closed from hunting 

 migratory birds. 



