BANDING WATERFOWL 53 



somewhere near the international border, and while some birds continue 

 southeastward into the Central and Mississippi flyways, others turn 

 southwestward across northwestern Montana and the Panhandle of 

 Idaho, follow along the Snake and Columbia River Valleys, and turn 

 southward across central Oregon to the great interior valleys of Cali- 

 fornia. This is the route followed by the Pintails and the Widgeons, or 

 Baldpates, which are of such importance to California sportsmen. 



The Bear River Marshes of Utah probably furnish the majority of 

 the Redheads that are killed for sport in California. Banding records 

 have indicated two routes that are roughly parallel. The northernmost 

 leaves the breeding grounds in a northwesterly direction and, describing 

 an arc across southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon, enters Cali- 

 fornia near the California-Nevada line. The second route runs through 

 central Nevada and reaches the California valleys near the confluence 

 of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. 



The breeding grounds of interior British Columbia have been little 

 affected either by agricultural or drought conditions and continue to 

 produce a fairly good supply of waterfowl, but banding records have 

 shown that these birds have comparatively little importance to the 

 sportsmen of the United States other than to those of northwestern 

 Washington. The reason apparently is found in the relatively mild 

 climate of the Puget Sound section, which is the wintering ground for 

 most of the British Columbia ducks. Very few birds banded in that 

 Province have been recovered from points south of Washington. 



BANDING WATERFOWL 



BY 



FREDERICK C. LINCOLN 



The marking of birds as a means for the study of their migratory 

 movements may be traced back fully two hundred years. Nevertheless, 

 it was not until the closing years of the nineteenth century that sys- 

 tematic banding received serious attention. At that time a Danish school- 

 master of Viborg, Mortensen by name, began to mark storks, teals, star- 

 lings and two or three different kinds of hawks. This work may be 

 justifiably known as the pioneer activity in scientific bird banding. 



Stimulated by the success of Mortensen's efforts, bird banding came 

 rapidly into prominence in many European countries. By 1914, eigh- 

 teen or twenty projects were in active operation. 



In North America, following a few private and bird club efforts, an 

 organization known as the American Bird Banding Association was 

 formed in New York City on December 8, 1909. With the help of many 

 individuals and under the guidance of the Linnaean Society of New 

 York, this association carried on banding in both the United States and 

 Canada until 1920, when, having outgrown available resources, the work 

 was formally taken over by the U. S. Biological Survey of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. [On June 30, 1940, the Bureau of Biological Sur- 

 vey and the Bureau of Fisheries, both of which had been transferred to 



