BIRD MAN HERE 
There is an expert bird man in 
Arizona. Not the kind that we see 
sailing in the Curtiss biplane but a 
man who is versed in bird lore and 
knows the ways of the feathered 
family. 
This man is Alexander Wetmore 
of the U. S. Biological Survey, who 
has come to Arizona from Washing¬ 
ton to study reports of bird injury 
and bird life. 
Mr. Wetmore visited the University 
a few days ago and told of his studies 
of the white wings which had been 
reported to be doing damage to wheat 
fields. His investigations showed 
that the damage was not great where 
wheat was harvested and stacked 
or threshed promptly, and he be¬ 
lieves that the white wing is a great¬ 
er friend than foe of the farmer. 
He will visit the Gila Valley, where 
farmers have reported to County 
Agent Ballantyne that certain birds 
have been destructive to field crops 
or orchards. He has already visited 
a number of the counties with the 
agents. This week he is camped up 
in Pinery Canyon, in the Chiricaliuas, 
and from his camp he has just 
tramped on foot over the summit of 
the range to Paradise, studying 
birds as he went. 
Mr. Wetmore was an Ornithologist 
who was assigned by the Biological 
Survey a few years ago to study the 
migrating habits of birds. Mr. Wet¬ 
more captured 1,000 ducks along the 
Great Salt Lake in Utah and placed 
band markers on their legs before 
liberating the birds. This was in 
1 914 to 1916 and about 175 of the 
number have been killed by hunters 
and the bands sent to the Biological 
Survey at Washington. These ducks 
were killed as far south as the Mex¬ 
ican line and as far east as the Mis¬ 
sissippi River. 
One hundred snowy herons were 
also marked and liberated at Great 
Salt Lake. One of these was killed 
in April of this spring near Willcox, 
Cochise County, Arizona, and two 
others have been killed in Central 
America. These and other records 
of migration show the reason for 
treaties between the United States 
and other countries covering the 
killing of birds of migratory habits. 
Some of the injury reported by 
birds in Arizona is done by migratory 
birds passing through, which injury 
•is neither serious nor long continu¬ 
ing. 
