THE WILSON BULLETIN 



Published at Oberlin, Ohio, by the Wilson Ornithological Club. 



Official Organ of the Wilson Ornithological Club and the Nebraska Ornithological Un- 

 ion lip affiliation I. 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico, $1 50 a year, 50c a number, post paid. 

 Price in all countries in the International Union, $2.00 a year, 60c a number. Subscriptions 

 should be sent to Geo. L. Fordyce, Youngstown, Ohio. 



EDITORIAL 



Your editor wishes to stress the importance of the Annual 

 Meeting, which is to be held, this year, on December 26th and 

 27th at the Field Columbian Museum, in Chicago. Matters of pol- 

 icy of the utmost importance to every member will be discussed, 

 upon which decisions must be made. Your participation in the 

 discussions and your vote in the final action to be taken are 

 urgently needed. The program of papers and discussions of them 

 will be well worth your while, and the opportunity to meet others 

 who are working and thinking along the lines of your activities 

 will be an inspiration and a help for the months that follow. If 

 you cannot be present on the 26th come on the 27th. It is likely 

 that the meetings will run over to the 28th. 



Bird banding as a means of determining the movements of 

 birds has been practiced for many years, but not until Mr. S. 

 Prentiss Baldwin, of Cleveland, Ohio, opened the field by com- 

 bining banding with systematic trapping, had the results obtained 

 anywhere near paid for the outlay in money and time. Mr. Bald- 

 win's results clearly show that here is a m_eans within the reach 

 of any persons who can secure a permit to trap birds for this 

 purpose, and who have sufficient knowledge of bird species to 

 handle them intelligently, of adding facts of the greatest import- 

 ance "to our knowledge of the movements of the birds, and a'.so 

 to shed great light upon the breeding habits of such birds as per- 

 mit handling during their breeding activities. Since the method 

 approaches exactness it is far superior to bird watching in re- 

 vealing certain habits which are connected with the breeding 

 activities. While any one person will be able to learn many 

 things worth while there are many other things that can be 

 learned only by cooperation over a wide area. The U. S. Biolog- 

 ical Survey furnishes the bands and the instructions that are 

 necessary for the work, and is the clearing house to which all 

 records are sent, both bands placed and bands found upon birds 

 that have been caught. If you are interested in this line of work 

 you would do well to wi'ite to the Chief of the Biological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C, for information, which will be sent to you 

 promptly. 



