The Possibilities of Bird-Marking. 205 



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fairly thick metal to do this, or must have a clasp of some sort. A very 

 simple pattern is that used at Eossitten, the headquarters of German bird- 

 marking. In it the band is longer, and is not all used in forming the circle ; 

 two unequal ends are left to project outwards side by side at the meeting 

 place, the longer being afterwards folded over the shorter, and so forming a 

 clasp which, especially if subjected to pressure with a pair of pliers, will 

 effectually prevent the ring from coming off. It may be mentioned that 

 for Moorhens, Divers, and other water birds, the rings require to be bent 

 into oval shape to fit the much compressed metataisus. It need hardly 

 be said that the rings do not hurt or even inconvenience the birds in 

 any way. 



Birds may be procured for marking in two ways. Either they may be 

 marked as young birds still unable to fly, or they may, when older, be trapped 

 by any non-hurtful means, marked, and released. Notification of their 

 subsequent death or re-capture depends on the address which is stamped on 

 the ring. Some have been content with mere initials, but this is very 

 wasteful — it is obvious that it must greatly reduce the number of " returns," 

 and practically exclude the possibility of records from any great distance. 

 Man}'- rings with various insufficient addresses have been found on birds but 

 never traced to their origin, although widely advertised in ornithological 

 periodicals. And, in any event, there is no great difficulty in stamping a 

 short address even on the smallest rings. In addition to the address, each 

 ring bears an identification number, different, of course, in each case. This 

 number is the key to the whole method. Some have used mere year marks 

 (the year in figures, or some arbitrary sign), but this is only possible where the 

 marking is confined to a single locality and a single species, and if the birds 

 are all marked as young. Thus, to take an actual case, if the rings bearing a 

 certain address are being used solely for young "Woodcock on a single estate, a 

 year mark is sufficient. But where the histories of the birds marked differ 

 from each other, separate identification is necessary. Species is not a reliable 

 factor for this purpose, in that marked birds are often reported by quite 

 ignorant persons. It is thus quite essential that the number on the ring 

 should be all that the marker requires to determine the species and history 

 of any marked bird of his that is reported to him. It may be remarked that 

 the number is sometimes stamped on the inner surface of the ring, and only 

 the address on the outer : more often the whole inscription is outside. The 

 rings soon lose their brightness, especially in the case of water birds, and are 

 not usually visible on the birds except with a strong field-glass and under 

 favourable conditions. Marking birds is thus in no way an encouragement 

 to the slaughter of our wild birds : the proportion of ringed birds to the whole 



