BIRD BANDING, THE TELLTALE OF MIGRATORY FLIGHT 



115 



Photograph by \V. J. Jaycock 



A HAPPY FAMILY Of MALLARDS 



Probable ancestor of the common barnyard Duck and most numerous and popular of our 

 American "quackers" is the Mallard. Feeding almost entirely on vegetable matter and with a 

 special penchant for wild rice when available, it constitutes food par excellence. 



times the same pair remain united and 

 raise two or three broods in a season. 

 Again, they remate indiscriminately. Or- 

 dinarily, only two sets of eggs are laid and 

 two broods raised, but if one set is de- 

 stroyed a third may be laid. Sometimes 

 the male remains and assists the female in 

 feeding and caring for the young ; at other 

 times he promptly deserts the family. 



One remarkable outcome of these stud- 

 ies of Wrens during a period of years is 

 that not in a single instance has any 

 mating between parents and their banded 

 young occurred. Father and son occa- 

 sionally take the same wife at different 

 times, but apparently there is no mixing of 

 close blood relatives. This is an unex- 

 pected situation, in view of the general 

 mixing up of the individuals of the species 

 in areas where they are as plentiful as at 

 Hillcrest. 



What becomes of the surplus young 

 hatched in a locality is still an unsolved 

 problem. Comparatively few of the young 

 Wrens banded at Hillcrest are retaken 

 in succeeding years. Observations of the 



banded birds indicate that, as soon as they 

 leave the nest, the mother leads them off to 

 a considerable distance instead of keeping 

 them about the vicinity where they were 

 hatched. 



This may be Nature's method of insur- 

 ing the dispersal of the increase and pre- 

 venting undue accumulation of individuals 

 in one locality. The abundance of birds 

 in any area commonly depends upon the 

 food supply, and if the young were all to 

 return to the vicinity of their birthplace 

 the evils of overpopulation would soon 

 arise. The fact that most birds appear 

 merely to hold their own year by year, 

 while they rear each season broods totaling 

 from 6 to 12 among the Wrens, gives an 

 idea of the heavy mortality suffered by 

 them. 



BANDING ALARMS BIRDS VgRY LITTLB 



Among the interesting results of bird 

 banding is the light that intensive work has 

 thrown, not only on the mentality of dif- 

 ferent species, but also on differences 

 among individual members of the species. 



