BIRD BANDING, THE TELLTALE OF MIGRATORY FLIGHT 



95 



there. One banded 

 American bird, how- 

 ever, has been recov- 

 ered in Africa (see 

 text, page 119). 



In the United States 

 Audubon m a d e the 

 first record of bird 

 marking, about 1803, 

 while he was living on 

 Perkiomen Creek, near 

 Philadelphia. He 

 placed silver cords 

 about the legs of a 

 Ijrood of Phoebes, two 

 of which returned to 

 the same neighbor- 

 hood the following 

 year. 



The pioneers in sys- 

 tematic bird banding 

 in this country were, 

 first. Dr. Leon J. Cole, 

 and later Mr. Howard 

 H. Cleaves. Their en- 

 thusiasm enabled them 

 to keep Ijird Ijanding 

 in continuous opera- 

 tion from the begin- 

 ning of the century to 

 the time when the 

 work was taken over 

 by the Biological Sur- 

 vey in 1920. 



No account of bird 

 banding in the United 

 States is complete 

 without mention of 

 Mr. S. Prentiss Bald- 

 win. His able pioneer 

 to 1919 in developing traps and methods 

 for their use in the capture of small 

 birds to be banded, and his continued 

 investigations, merit full appreciation. 

 His work has been done on Inwood Es- 

 tate, near Thomasville, Georgia, and at 

 Hillcrest, his summer home, near Cleve- 

 land, Ohio. 



To his successful methods of operation 

 and delightful presentation of the results 

 to the public, combined with the entry of 

 the Biological Survey into the work, with 

 Mr. F. C. Lincoln in charge of this activ- 

 ity, may be credited much of the rapid 

 development of this form of scientific re- 

 search in America. 



i^ork from 1914 



Photograph from U. S. Biological Survey 



HE HAS BANDED MORE THAN 4,000 MALLARDS 



Mr. F. C. Lincoln is in cliarge of tJie bird-banding worl-: of tlie United 

 States Biological Survey. 



Extraordinary work has also been done 

 by Mr. Jack Miner at Kingsville, Ontario, 

 where for years he has carried on the 

 Ijanding of Ducks and Geese attracted to 

 his refuge. He states that 40 per cent of 

 the birds he tags in the autumn return 

 the following spring. Geese bearing his 

 bands have been taken in 23 States. His 

 sanctuary is an unparalleled object lesson 

 of the confidence which may be established 

 Ijetween man and wild things when the 

 approach is undertaken in the right spirit 

 (see pages 96-97). 



One demonstration of the keen interest 

 in bird banding has been the formation of 

 four regional bird-banding associations, 

 among which has been divided all of the 



