WHY BAND MIGRATORY BIRDS ? 
In his ancient migrations through- 
out the Pacific, man found the 
birds his allies, and soon turn- 
ed their ways to his advantage. 
Primitive voyagers learned to rec- 
ognize the flight habits of certain 
birds far at sea and thus knew that 
land lay not far ahead. Many of 
the Pacific’s islands were discov- 
ered in this way. Fishermen, too, 
for untold ages, have carefully ob- 
served the flight patterns of birds 
in their own search for fish. On 
land, many settlers have survived 
upon birds and their eggs when no 
other food was available. 
Today, as in the past, birds are 
extremely important to life in the 
Pacific. The commerce in guano, a 
valuable agricultural fertilizer, 
stems from vast accumulations of 
excrement over long periods on 
"guano islands" where it is depos- 
ited by great numbers of sea birds. 
And, although man no longer depends 
heavily on birds for food and navi- 
gation, flocks of feeding sea birds 
still clue Pacific fishermen to 
schools of food fish. 
In studies conducted by the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service on the 
relation of bird flocks to fish 
schools in the Central Pacific, it 
was found that about 85 percent of 
all fish schools sighted was accom- 
PACIFIC BIRD OBSERVER 
This is a bi-monthly newsletter 
published by the Division of 
Birds, Smithsonian Institution, 
in an effort to promote the un- 
derstanding of birds and their 
relation to man in the Pacific. 
panied by feeding bird flocks and 
was located by first sighting the 
birds. Not only that, but fisher- 
men were often able accurately to 
identify the species of fish by the 
characteristic action of the bird 
flock! A significant part of to- 
day’s multi-million dollar tuna in- 
dustry in the Pacific owes its ex- 
istence to birds and their value as 
fish-school indicators. 
Wild birds are of great value to 
man in the Pacific for all of these 
reasons, and like anything of great 
value should be respected and con- 
served. Used wisely, they will re- 
main an aid to man for unlimited 
years to come. 
GILBERTESE 
FIRST TO BAND 
Modern scientists are not the 
first to employ bird banding as a 
means of identification. Peter 
Child, Education Officer at Tarawa, 
Gilbert Islands, from 19^-3 to 19^T 
wrote the following note in Birds 
of the Gilbert and Ellice Island 
Colony (i960): "Gilbertese who have 
caught Turnstone for some of their 
games, and have identified their 
own birds by tying a piece of col- 
oured cloth to a wing, have had the 
same birds return to them after an 
absence on migration, presumably to 
the Arctic and back." 
The Division of Birds, Smithson- 
ian Institution, is interested in 
learning more about this interes- 
ting custom. Anyone having further 
information on this or similar tra- 
ditions in other areas is urged to 
write the Smithsonian Institution. 
