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SOME RESULTS 

 OBTAINED BY "RINGING" STARLINGS. 



BY 



N. H. JOY. 



Between May, 1910, and February Uth, 1912, 1 ''ringed" 

 one thousand six hundred and ninety-six Starlings (Sturnus 

 vulgaris) within one mile of this house, at Bradfield, 

 Berkshire, about eight miles due west of Reading. Most 

 of these birds have been caught in a cage-trap made 

 after the description given by Dr. C. B. Ticehurst in 

 British Birds, Vol. IV., p. 237, but with a door at the 

 side large enough to admit a man. This I found very 

 necessary, as it took too long to catch some thirty or forty 

 birds (a not unusual number to be in the trap at one 

 time) with a net. The trap was set in a large chicken - 

 run, and was baited with the usual chicken-food and 

 refuse from the kitchen. It was seldom attended to 

 more often than three times a day, a quite insufficient 

 number of times, as was often proved by leaving several 

 marked birds in the trap, and finding at the next visit 

 they had all escaped. Probably owing to this, some birds 

 got to know the exit quite well, and used to fly out 

 deliberately, even though I ran up to them clapping my 

 hands. About two hundred and fifty birds were taken in 

 another trap which was set only on a very few occasions, 

 and fifty-four nestlings from nesting-boxes were " ringed." 

 The following is a list of the birds marked at different 

 times of the year : — 



Summer 1910, nestlings . . . . . . . . 42 



January 12th-February 14th, 1911 . . 

 May to July, 1911, young and nestlings 



Ditto adults 



October and November, 1911 



568 

 99 

 7 

 92 



December 12th, 1911, to February 11th, 1912 . . 888 



Of the 1910 nestlings, four have been recaptured here 

 on the following dates : January 13th, 1911, two ; October 

 14th and December 26th, 1911, two : i.e. 4.76 per cent, 

 were recovered in the first winter and about 10 per cent, 

 up to date. 



