2 CIRCULAR 363, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
utilization, sometimes unwisely, of the marsh, water, and other areas 
they formerly frequented. 
The migrations of birds were probably among the first natural 
phenomena to attract the attention and intrigue the imagination of 
man. Recorded observations on the subject date back nearly 3,000 
years, to the times of Hesiod, Homer, Herodotus, Aristotle, and others. 
In the Bible are several references to the periodic movements of birds, 
as in the book of Job (39:26), where the inquiry is made: ‘‘ Doth the 
hawk fly by Thy wisdom and stretch her wings toward the south?” 
Jeremiah (8:7), wrote: ‘‘The stork in the heavens knoweth her 
appointed time; and the turtle [dove], and the crane, and the swallow, 
observe the time of their coming.”’ And the flight of quail that saved 
the Israelites from starvation in their wanderings in the wilderness of 
Sinai is now recognized as a vast movement of migratory quail 
(Coturnixz coturniz) between their breeding grounds and their winter 
home in Africa. 
Throughout the ages the return flights of migratory birds have 
_ been important (1) as a source of food after a lean winter, and (2) as 
the harbinger of a change in season. The arrival of certain species 
has been heralded with appropriate ceremonies in many lands, and 
among Eskimo and other tribes the phenomenon to this day is the 
accepted sign of the imminence of spring and of warmer weather. 
The pioneer fur traders in Alaska and Canada offered rewards to the 
Indian or Eskimo who saw the first goose of the spring, and all joined 
in jubilant welcome to the newcomer. 
Always hunted for food, the large flocks of ducks and geese became 
objects of the enthusiastic attention of an increasing army of sports- 
men as the North American Continent became ever more thickly 
settled. Most of the nongame species were found to be valuable also 
as allies of the farmer in his never-ending warfare against weed and 
insect pests. The need for laws protecting the valuable game and 
nongame birds and for regulated hunting of the diminishing game 
species followed as a natural course. In the management of this wild- 
life resource it has become obvious that continuous studies must be 
made of the food habits of the various species, their environmental 
needs, and their travels. Hence bird investigations are made by the 
Biological Survey, the Bureau charged by Congress under the Mi- 
oratory Bird Treaty Act with the duty of protecting those species that 
in their yearly journeys pass back and forth between the United States 
and Canada. 
For half a century the Biological Survey has been collecting data 
on the interesting and important phenomenon of the migration of 
North American birds. The field men of the Bureau have gathered 
information concerning the distribution and seasonal movements of 
the different species in many extended areas, from the Arctic coast 
south to the pampas of Argentina. Supplementing these investiga- 
tions is the work of hundreds of volunteer ornithologists and bird 
students throughout the United States and Canada, who each year, 
spring and fall, forward to the Bureau reports on migrations observed 
in their respective localities. Added to the mass of data thus assem- 
bled is a rapidly growing file of records of birds that have been banded 
and of the subsequent recovery of the marked individuals. 
These data, together with other carded records gleaned by the 
Biological Survey from a vast literature, constitute a series of files 
