Volume XXIV 
July, 1913 
Number i 
On days when the sun is shining brightly it is easy to capture the saw-whet owl and place a band on his leg. 
than the screech owl, and visits us in winter 
The saw-whet 
glVXWEVVi 
is much smaller 
The Fascinating Sport of Banding Birds 
A COMPARATIVELY NEW METHOD OF THROWING LIGHT ON THE PERPLEXING PROBLEMS OF BIRD 
MIGRATION—A DELIGHTFUL SPORT WHICH IS WITHIN THE REACH OF EVERY COUNTRY DWELLER 
by Howard H. Cleaves 
E VERY fancier of pigeons and 
owner of pedigreed poultry 
has probably followed the custom 
of placing rings or identification 
tags on the legs of his feathered 
stock, but how many have heard 
of the practice of systematically 
placing aluminum anklets on the 
feet of the wild birds of the land 
and sea? The chicken breeder 
catalogues his chickens for the 
purpose of developing and sepa¬ 
rating certain strains, for cross¬ 
breeding, careful egg selection, 
etc., and the pigeon keeper marks 
his birds that he may be enabled 
to keep account of their individual 
attainments as carriers or homers 
—but those engaged in the now 
somewhat widespread, although 
Secretary of the American Bird Banding Association 
Photographs by the author 
to many, rather new scheme of 
banding wild birds have motives 
which differ widely from those of 
either the chicken or the pigeon 
owner. 
Owing to their conspicuousness, 
both with regard to form and 
habits, wild birds have from the 
earliest times attracted wider at¬ 
tention than any other class of 
creatures in the whole of creation. 
We find representations of birds 
carved in stone structures that 
were built by peoples of the re¬ 
motest ages ; literature of all times 
contains unnumbered references 
to the birds; and hardly a day 
passes when we do not, in one 
way or another, allude to bird life. 
And yet, in spite of all our in- 
The young owl did not mind the band fitted on his leg 
(II) 
