Literature Relating to Staten Island i 5 



Staten Island subjects. The object and method of bird banding 

 is described and discussed. It consists, briefly, in placing a small 

 numbered, aluminum band, with the inscription "notify Am. 

 Museum, N. Y.," on the leg of the bird. The circumstances under 

 which each bird was banded are carefully recorded, and should 

 that bird ever be captured or killed anywhere, at any subsequent 

 time, it may be traced by its number. The author notes, for ex- 

 ample, that a robin banded at Bangor, Me., July 8, 1910, was cap- 

 tured at Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 21, 191 1, and that a red-winged 

 blackbird banded at Charleston, R. I., June 8, 1912, was shot at 

 Green Pond, S. C, Nov. 2, 1912. 



The author says : " The bird banding idea is one which is bound 

 to become popular. ... As many as a dozen young men and boys 

 on Staten Island . . . have come to me for bird bands, and by the 

 first week in June of the present year had located over a hundred 

 birds' nests. Instead of taking the eggs for the purpose of starting 

 ' collections,' as several of these boys had done in previous years, 

 the nests were jealously guarded so that the young might become 

 ripe for banding." 



The illustrations include the saw-whet owl, swallow, brown 

 thrasher, Carolina wren and screech owl. A. H. 



Fill up the East River to Solve Port Problems^ 



Under the above title is given an abstract of a suggested plan 

 for the remodeling of the port of New York, filling in the East 

 River so as to connect Manhattan with Long Island, and construct- 

 ing new areas of land elsewhere in the vicinity by reclaiming 

 marshland and shoals. Staten Island figures prominently in the 

 scheme by the construction of two peninsula-like projections in the 

 Lower Bay. The article states that " Staten Island is now as- 

 sessed at $50,000,000, and as soon as this scheme is carried out the 

 value will be increased to $500,000,000, and the value of two and 

 one quarter square miles of new land and docks will easily be 

 $1,000,000 more." 



3 T. Kennard Thomson, D.Sc, New York Times, August 31, 1913. 



