94 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



A PAIR OF HONKERS 



After being banded, these two Geese took up their interrupted migra 

 tion none the worse for the markers they wore away with them. 



have sent out the Raven and the Dove to 

 prospect for land. 



The first record of hirds being marked 

 to distinguish them after flight appears to 

 be in the tenth book of PHny's Natural 

 History, which states that a Roman 

 sportsman took Swallows from Volaterree 

 (Volterra), in Tuscany, to Rome. Dur- 

 ing the chariot races the birds were 

 marked with colors of the winners and 

 then liberated to carry the news back 

 home. 



For a time prior to the development of 

 systematic banding, students desirous of 

 lifting the veil of mystery surrounding 

 bird movements cut the feathers so they 

 could readily be identified. Sometimes 



they marked the birds 

 with bright colors, or 

 attached a small piece 

 of parchment with a 

 legend to a feather or 

 to a leg. These crude 

 and scattered efforts 

 gave little information. 

 The first record of 

 a bird banded appears 

 to have been made in 

 1710. A Great Gray 

 Heron, bearing several 

 rings on one leg, was 

 taken in Germany. 

 One of the rings ap- 

 parently had been 

 placed on it in Turkey. 

 In 1899 Professor 

 C. C. ilortensen, a 

 school-teacher of Vi- 

 borg, Denmark, began 

 systematically to band 

 and record Storks, 

 Starlings, and other 

 birds along the gen- 

 eral lines which are 

 still in use. Thus he 

 became the pioneer in 

 practical, scientific 

 methods of bird band- 

 ing, and his success 

 led to the work being 

 taken up in various 

 places, especially in 

 Great Britain, Sweden, 

 elsewhere in Europe, 

 and also in the United 

 States. 

 The two records of birds banded in 

 Europe being taken on this side of the 

 Atlantic appear to be both of Kittiwake 

 Gulls. The first was a young bird banded 

 June 28, 1923, on the Earne Islands, oft' 

 the coast of Northumberland. On Au- 

 gust 12, 1924, it was killed in the District 

 of St. Barbe, Newfoundland. The secorid 

 was also banded on the Earne Islands, June 

 30, 1924, and was taken at Gross Water 

 Bay, Labrador, in October, 1925. 



AUDUBON WAS THE EIRST AMERICAN 

 BIRD BANDER 



No bird banded on this side has yet 

 been taken in Europe, although many 

 stray American birds have been recorded 



photograph by R. D. Sloaae 

 TAKE THE AIR 



