474 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



On referring to No. 4590 among the original banding records 

 it was found that the bird in question had been marked when about 

 2 weeks old at St. Clair Flats Canal, Mich., on August 13, 1909, 

 by Mr. S. A. Courtis. By corresponding with Mr. Salois it was 

 learned that the terns were apparently not nesting at '\'\niitebread, 

 Ontario, and it is not unlikely that the birds seen there had bred 

 at St. Clair Flats and were indulging in n, little raving after the 

 nesting season. However this may be, the fact remains that the dead 

 tern had worn the aluminum anklet for three years minus eight 

 days; had likely made three round trips to the Gulf of Mexico or 

 some other place in the Tropics to spend the winter each year since 

 1909; and was shot but a comparatively short distance from the 

 spot where he was hatched. 



A farmer by the name of August Schilling, of Evansville, 111., was 

 walking across his fields on April 1, 1912, when he frightened a 

 butcher bird from a fence post, where it had been feeding on what 

 proved to be a bluebird. On picking up the victim and scrutinizing 

 it Mr. Schilling was astonished to discover that the bird wore a ring 

 on its right leg, and that the ring bore an inscriptionr He wrote a 

 letter to The Auk, New York, giving the number of the band, and 

 asked for information, saying : 



Please let me know when the band was put on. There are lots of people 

 would like to know. 



This particular bluebird was one of a brood banded by Dr. R. M. 

 Strong, of the University of Chicago, at West Allis, Wis., on July 

 5, 1909. The band had been carried for two years and nine months, 

 and had apparently caused no inconvenience. It is probable that 

 this bluebird had made two complete migrations to the south, and 

 was about to complete the last lap of a third when he was so unfor- 

 tunate as to cross the path of Lanius horealis. 



The letters sent in by persons who have come into possession of 

 banded birds are often intensely interesting, containing information 

 regarding the conditions under which the bird was secured that 

 makes a story of unique character when one goes to the filing cabinet, 

 picks out the banding record, and puts the two halves of the tale 

 together. The following is a good example : The owner of a rice 

 plantation on the Lower Cambahee River, Colleton County, S. C, 

 sent in word that on November 2, 1912, his "bird minder" (a man 

 stationed with a gun in the " rice yard " for the purpose of keeping 

 birds away from the grain) had shot a number of red- winged black- 

 birds and was preparing them for a potpie when he came upon one 

 wearing a small metal band on its leg. MHiat could be more fraught 

 with interest? The man had, of course, given the number of the 

 band, and we at once picked out the card bearing the record of band- 

 ing, and supplied the other end of the story. We found that the bird 



