BIRD STUDY 
15 
scantiest data for their compilation are available. It is only by the study 
of many local areas that such broader lists can be satisfactorily written, 
and in such local studies as these much good work can be done by the 
amateur. It must not be assumed that such local faunal work is easy; 
when conscientiously done it becomes one of the most difficult fields of 
ornithology. Ten years spent on such work assisted by all available 
literature and the advice of experts is little enough to form a satisfactory 
basis for work. Literature must be searched, weight of authorities estimated, 
evidence verified, specimens accurately identified, and all must be subject 
to the observer’s experience and the probabilities. Knowledge of adjoin- 
ing localities and general and local literature is indispensable for this. To 
satisfy modern standards of accuracy the making of a faunal list is one of 
the severest tests of ornithological ability. 
The economic effect, of bird life is an important study, and one in 
which the greatest caution is necessary. General impressions are so often 
misleading that conclusions should be founded only on irrefutable evidence. 
Stomach examination of what has actually been taken into the alimentary 
canal is practically the only positive evidence of food habits and in some 
cases leads to surprising results. No species should be condemned until a 
thorough study by this method has been made by experienced investigators. 
Such a study is beyond the amateur, but he can assist greatly by preserving 
the stomachs of those specimens he collects in the course of his work and 
forwarding them to the Victoria Memorial Museum, where they may 
be either immediately examined or stored for reference later. Field observa- 
tions of the economic status of species when accurately made and reported 
are often of great value, but must be used with the greatest caution. 
Of late years “banding” has become an established and valuable 
method of bird study. Numbered aluminium bands with return address 
are locked about the legs of nestlings and trapped birds in such a manner 
as not to interfere with their normal activities, and the bearers are released. 
Full records are kept of species, date, locality, age, and circumstance in 
each case. Returns from these banded specimens are coming in now in 
considerable numbers and we are getting exact, demonstrable knowledge 
of them, where hitherto we had nothing but guesswork or analogy to go 
upon. The practice of systematically banding on a limited home area 
throughout the season, and year after year, has been particularly fruitful 
and has opened up an entirely new field of interesting research to the 
amateur observer of limited opportunity. Such work, of course, has to be 
regulated to prevent unqualified persons from participating and the con- 
fusion of duplicate records, bands, and systems. In Canada such work is 
under the control and supervision of the National Parks Branch of the 
Department of the Interior, who issue the necessary permits to anyone 
wishing to engage in this form of research in Canada. 
Some very interesting results that could have been secured in no other 
way have been obtained from these banding studies; for instance, we 
are gradually learning how long birds may live in a state of nature and 
some interesting plumage age-sequences are being solved. We are finding 
out something of the constancy, or the contrary, of the mating of many of 
our familiar garden visitors, how the young scatter from their natal homes 
in successive seasons, and the extent and relative permanency of individual 
territorial domain. We are tracing individual birds through the course of 
their migration and are finding many remarkable deviations from previ- 
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