138 Cole, The Tagging of Wild Birds. \.\$k 



of the birds in the spring and their departure in the fall are among 

 the most apparent of natural phenomena about us, and must be 

 noticed by everyone, it is quite another matter when it comes to 

 the details of their movements. 



Most of the knowledge of the migrations of birds which has been 

 gleaned up to the present time is of their mass movements ; scarcely 

 anything is known of what becomes of an individual bird after its 

 departure in the fall from its summer home, or, I might even say, 

 after it has reared its young. It is truly wonderful that birds can 

 wing their way from the region where they breed to a far distant 

 land, and then, with the return of proper conditions, find their 

 way back again to the same region. But how much more wonder- 

 ful if they come back to the very locality which they left the year 

 before! And how little exact knowledge we have of their ability 

 to do this ! It is the purpose of the present paper to outline a plan 

 by which it is hoped that much data of a definite kind can be secured, 

 not only as to the great migrations of birds, but regarding their 

 minor movements as well. Furthermore, it is believed that light 

 may be shed on many subsidiary problems. 



The fundamental basis of the plan is a simple one, and one 

 which is not new at this time. It is, briefly, the attaching of identi- 

 fiable tags or bands upon birds, together with directions so that 

 they may be returned if again found. It may be of interest to 

 those who are not already familiar with the fact to know that 

 probably the first person in this country to try this method was no 

 less than Audubon himself. In his ' Birds of America,' x after 

 describing in a delightful way his intimacy with a nest of Phoebes, 

 or, as he calls them, "Pewee Flycatchers," he says: "I attached 

 light threads to their legs: these they invariably removed, either 

 with their bills, or with the assistance of their parents. I renewed 

 them, however, until I found the little fellows habituated to them; 

 and at last, when they were about to leave the nest, I fixed a light 

 silver thread to the leg of each, loose enough not to hurt the part, 

 but so fastened that no exertions of theirs could remove it." His 

 birds left duly in the fall, but he adds: "At the season when the 

 Pewee returns to Pennsylvania, I had the satisfaction to observe 



1 Audubon, John James. Birds of America, New York and Philadelphia, 1840, 

 Vol. I, p. 227. 



