Bird Banding Department 
177 
dow feeding box regularly. I then noticed there were no banded birds 
coining in to feed, nor have I since had a single repeat on any of these 
numbers. Evidently the first Purple Finch to arrive moved on and 
were not the ones here through the summer and nesting 
I have trapped and killed a large number of English Sparrows, kept 
tab for four weeks, June 21 to July 19, number 331. They were almost 
all young birds and females; got only three old ones in the lot. 
A Purple Finch acts very differently from an English Sparrow when 
trapped. The Sparrow has one eye on you and the other is looking for 
a means of escape. If in the outer part of trap as you approach it almost 
at once finds the hole and is in the back end of the trap. A Purple 
Finch in the outer part of trap is so busy keeping it’s eyes on you that 
it never sees the hole and sometimes it is almost impossible to get it 
to go through. In fact, if there is only one Finch in the outer part, I 
very often lift the trap and catch it in my hand. An English Sparrow 
would be out almost the moment you lifted the edge of the trap from 
the ground. Another difference I noted is that a Finch keeps flying 
back and forth, particularly around the top half of the trap, which is 
not protected with fine mesh screen, and, if in the trap any length of 
time, frequently knocks the skin off above the bill until the base of the 
upper bill is raw. I have yet to find an English Sparrow with a raw or 
bloody bill. 
Usually I band morning and evening, as I seldom get home for 
lunch. Although I always open the back door of each trap, when I 
leave in the morning, I frequently find Purple Finch in the traps when 
I return. They get in the outer compartment, but do not find their way 
through the hole to the rear where the door is open. 
If my supply of bands doesn’t run out again I hope to do better for 
the balance of the year than I have done thus far. 
The Juncos and White-throats always go through in force, both 
spring and fall, and I have always had large flocks call as they are 
passing through, in addition to those that nest in this locality. 
I am running two traps, one a regular bander’s trap with openings 
large enough to admit birds the size of the Evening Grosbeak. The 
other a regular Sparrow trap with fine mesh screen around the lower 
half When I found the Purple Finch had so much trouble in finding 
the hole into the back compartment, particularly of this trap, I took 
it to a tin shop and had the hole enlarged, also the entrance, as I found, 
except the English Sparrow, I got more birds in the bander’s trap than 
in the Sparrow trap. 
Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. M. J. Magee. 
July 28, 1922. 
Note. — We banded about twenty-five Purple Finch at Waukegan 
just before they went north. We also were interested in their fight- 
ing ability. They were so ready to fight, in fact, that they would 
keep it up after we had opened our hand, apparently more inter- 
ested in fighting than in escaping, and frequently when one secured a 
good hold on our finger he could be lifted up clear of the hand, where it 
would hang quite an instant before it would realize it was free. We 
tried to obtain a picture of one in that position but did not succeed. 
