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TITH UNCLE SAM'S NATURALISTS 



RELEASE Friday, Hay 8, 19 5 



NOT li'OR PUBLICATION 



Speaking Time: 10 ;{inutes. 



AMOUNCS.IEl'JT ; As wise King Solomon once sang, "the winter is past; the rain is 

 over and gone; the flowers aor)ear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds 

 is come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land." To-day our 

 Wilds Han is going to tell us about how Uncle Sam's Natviralists keep track of 

 the cctnin;-;s and goings of birds; big ones and little ones, tame ones and f-ame 

 ones, singers and squawkers Well, Hr. 7ilds lian? 



With -'11 the folks who are flitting around in autO'tiobiles these days, it 

 is a big enoTogh job to keep up with our migrritory humans. 



But Just think of the job of keeoing track of our more than four billion 

 birds I Even in a general way. 



There are more than seven hundred different species of birds, to say 

 nothing of the sub-species, in this country. Some are strong, swift flyers, other 

 are slow, clumsy flyers; but they all kivo \^ings; and most of them move about, 

 more or less, from place to place. 



Of course, you know, there are birds like the cardinals that seem to 

 stay all their lives within a few rail^s of the next in v'hich they were hatched. 

 But even our old friends the mourning; doves move about from State to State, and 

 so do the robins, ind the wrens, and the swallov^s, and scores upon scores of 

 others. Many of our ducks and geasc nest in Alaslca and Canada. 



Ri;^ht now we ?ro in the midst of the season of he-'vy traffic in our air 

 lanes, as the hundreds of different kinds of birds are winging their way to 

 their summer homes. 



For many years, now, the United Stnt^.s Biological Survey has been studying 



the migratory movements and geo ,Taphic distribution of birds "What difference 



does it make?" you say. 



"i-iay be there are a few more of some kinds this year in our ysird or in 

 the neighboring fields or woods. Or -lay be there are fewer of other kinds. — 

 "What difference does this make?" 



— oOo- 



Of course, you arc not thinking of our food and gnmo birds when you ask 

 that. How they are doing on othor parts of their range nay have whole lot to 

 do with your hunting next season. 



