Vol.XXVII 

 1910 



] Cole, The Tagging of Wild Birds. 159 



and Song SparroAvs, in traps, banded them, and set them at liberty. 

 Some of the birds he caught again six or eight times after they had 

 been banded. Mr. Miller sent in 74 records. Dr. R. M. Strong, 

 of the University of Chicago, took an active interest in the work, 

 and as a result of his own efforts, and the bands he gave out, 72 

 birds were banded, 37 of them being by Mr. Ralph W. Chancy, 

 also at the University of Chicago. Mr. William L. Finley of 

 Milwaukee, Ore., sent in 41 records, and Mr. A. A. Saunders, with 

 the U. S. Forestry Service in Montana, 32, both of them including 

 a variety of species. Mr. Roy Thompson, of Cando, N. Dak., 

 together with Mr. D. S. Englar, sent in 32 records, and so on. The 

 writer, with the assistance of several friends, succeeded in banding 

 209 birds, most of which were young Common and Roseate Terns 

 on the Wee Pecket Islands in Buzzards Bay. 



Time will not permit of an enumeration or discussion of all the 

 "returns" from the banding that have been received, so only some 

 of the more interesting cases will be given. These will be enough, 

 I think, to convince the most skeptical that the scheme is practicable 

 and promises valuable results, even if we did not have also the 

 notable results which have been gained abroad by this kind of 

 Avork.^ 



The first return record obtained by us was for a Robin which 

 was banded with one of the old-style closed bands in 1908. The 

 data may be given briefly as follows : 



No. N. H. 251. Robin, half fledged. Banded in an orchard at 

 Kingston, R. I., August 4, 1908, by Leon J. Cole and Wm. F. 

 Kirkpatrick. Shot at Kingston, R. I., by Mr. Kirkpatrick, on 

 April 9, 1909. This bird was taken the following spring after 

 being banded, and at the poultry plant only 200 yards or so from 

 the orchard in which it was reared. We know nothing, of course, 

 as to where it had been in the meantime, but at any rate we have 

 incontrovertible evidence that it had returned to its place of nativity. 

 It should be said in passing that this Robin was not shot for the 

 purpose of obtaining the band, and that Mr. Kirkpatrick had no 



1 Since the above was written there have been several interesting "returns," in- 

 cluding that of a Bluebird banded near Portland, Maine, and killed in Rutherford 

 County, N. C, and of a Robin banded near Sanduskj% Ohio, and taken near Nash- 

 ville, Tenn. 



