BIRD BANDING, THE TELLTALE OF MIGRATORY FLIGHT 



IE 



The detailed ac- 

 counts of the family 

 ailairs of the House 

 Wrens at Hillcrest, 

 Ohio, give a good idea 

 of the information 

 that can he gathered 

 through hird handing. 

 Similar methods can 

 be used with other 

 species, although not 

 usually to so great ad- 

 vantage, owing to the 

 number of pairs of 

 Wrens that nest in this 

 limited area. 



At Hillcrest, t h e 

 male Wrens usually 

 arrive in advance of 

 the females in spring 

 and each locates what 

 he considers a satis- 

 factory nesting box, in 

 which he places the 

 foundation for a nest. 

 He then guards the 

 premises, singing at 

 intervals while await- 

 ing the arrival of the 

 females. They appear 

 soon after, and seem 

 to give more weight to 

 choice of location and 

 character of the nest- 

 ing boxes than to 

 choice of husband. 

 This was shown con- 

 clusively in one series 

 of observations. 



For two or three 

 weeks a male occupied 

 a nesting box. No. 53, 

 on the outside wall of the library at Hill- 

 crest. One morning he sang with unusual 

 vigor and showed great excitement. A 

 female was examining his nest box. At 

 7 a. m. the trapdoor of the box was closed 

 and the band on the leg of the captured 

 female was read. 



Four hours later, when the observer was 

 passing nest box No. 47, attached to the 

 walls of the garage, its male proprietor 

 showed similar excitement over a female 

 that was going in and out of the box and 

 otherwise indicating that she was inspect- 

 ing the premises. She was trapped and 



Photograph by S. Prc-ntiss LalJwin 

 THIS CARDINAI, IS HOLDING MORE THAN HIS OWN 



Trapped Cardinals 

 and if taken in hand 

 the bird was so absorl 

 and freed it hung on 

 any effort to escape 



often squeal shrilly when they are approached 

 fight vindictively. In the instance photographed 



bed in punishing its captor that after being banded 

 to the finger it was biting for sometime without 



(see text, page 116). 



her band proved her to be the same bird 

 noted earlier in the morning at box 53. 



At 4 p. m. the same day she was caught 

 at nest box 49, halfway between the other 

 boxes, where she was examining the prem- 

 ises held by a third male. By the next 

 morning she had settled down contentedly 

 and begun her honeymoon with male 

 number four at box 26, attached to the 

 outer walls of the sugar house. This was 

 the final choice and there she raised her 

 family. 



There appears to be no set rule govern- 

 ing family relations among Wrens. Some- 



