254 Cleaves, American Bird Bunding Association. [April 



numerous and the men were about to return to camp when oik- 

 suddenly touched the other on the arm and said "You cannot hit 

 him!" In answer to this challenge the second gunner wheeled 

 quickly about and took a difficult chance shot at a fast disappear- 

 ing Common Tern. There were many terns flying' up and down 

 the stream, hovering in the air and plunging- for minnows, and it 

 seems strange that the one shot should have home a hand on his 

 leg. The finding of that hand resulted in the following letter: 



" Dear Friends 



As I have never seen you's before hut I am writing a few lines to 

 It'll you about a ring or piece of tin 1 found on a sea gull or sea bird. 

 There is thousands of them here htit 1 will not try it again. In 

 examining the bird 1 found on the left leg 'Notify the Auk or Ark 

 4590 New York.' So I am doing so to let you know how far this 

 bird travelled. Well I Mill close. Please" write hack and let me 

 know if you got this scribbling. 



from 

 August 5th, 1011'. Leo Salois, Box 14, Whitebread, Ont." 



On referring to number 4590 among the original handing records 

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

 about two weeks old at Saint Clair Flats Canal, Michigan, on 

 August l.'hh, L909, by Mr. S. A. Courtis. By correspondence with 

 Mr. Salois it was learned that the terns were apparently not nest- 

 ing at Whitebread, Ontario, and it is not unlikely that the birds 

 seen there had bred at Saint Clair Flats and were indulging in a 

 little roving after the nesting season. However this may he, the 

 facts remain that tin- 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 L909; and was shot hut a com- 

 paratively short distance from the spot where he was hatched. 



A farmer by the name of August Schilling of Fvansville, Illinois, 

 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 he a Bluebird. On picking up the victim and scrutiniz- 

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

 a ring on its right leg, and that the ring bore an inscription. He 



