1923] STODDARD, BIRD BANDING 117 



BIRD BANDING IN MILWAUKEE AND VICINITY 



By Herbert L. Stoddardi' 



The marking of wild birds with metal bands, in an endeavor to 

 solve some of the mysteries of bird migration and other knotty prob- 

 lems in connection with their life histories, has been carried on spas- 

 modicall}' by various individuals and organizations for several years 

 with considerable success. Three years ago it was taken over by the 

 Biological Survey, of the United States Department of Agriculture and 

 became a great national movement. 



The valuable information that may result from the study of birds 

 as individuals, by means of numbered bands, can be obtained by no 

 other method, and bids fair to revolutionize bird study. The success 

 of this movement depends, of course, largely upon the support and 

 interest of ornithologists and bird lovers everywhere. Widest pub- 

 licity must be given the work so that the largest possible percentage 

 of bands, taken from birds that have died or have been killed anywhere 

 on our continent, will be sent with the required particulars to the 

 Survey. 



Special bird-banding permits are furnished by the Survey to prop- 

 erly qualified persons who volunteer to place the bands. "Permits for 

 bird-banding are issued only to persons over eighteen years of age who 

 have sufficient experience and knowledge of birds to csury on the 

 work with scientific accuracy." 



A number of regional associations have already been formed to 

 cooperate with the Survey in this work, the one covering our area 

 being the Inland Bird Banding Association. Permits have been issued 

 to nearly a thousand volunteer banders scattered over the entire 

 country, and the number is rapidly increasing. Bands, permits, and 

 data blanks are provided without cost by the Survey, but the bander 

 builds his own traps according to specifications furnished him or to 

 his own ideas. The best results are obtained by those who establish 

 regular trapping stations, which become in effect bird sanctuaries, 

 where the birds are fed and protected from cats and other enemies, 

 the trapping being carried on yesn' after year in the same place. 



Many people hesitate to take up the work because they fear that 

 their feathered friends will be frightened, or perhaps injured. How- 

 ever, experience has proven otherwise. Careful banders almost never 

 injure a bird, and instead of being frightened from the neighborhood, 

 the tendenc}^ with most birds is to return to the traps again and again, 



■'Associate Taxidermist, Milwaukee Pulilic Museum. 



