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recoveries reported through the Washington office, and 23 were found dead 
in the nesting colonies, making a total of 135. This shows only .64% of 
the total number banded, which looks very small and really is. On ring- 
billed gulls we have had 2.7% recoveries, on herring gulls 4.1%, and on 
mourning doves 13.5%. We have banded 81,281 birds of all kinds, with 
1,837 recoveries reported, which is 244% of the total. 
When we visit a nesting colony we always look carefully to see if we 
can find any birds that have recently died. In 1942 we found five dead 
birds, two of them banded in 1938, one in 1936, one in 1934, and one in 
1932. It is our belief that most of the common terns come back to the 
same area where they were hatched to nest in future years. 
We always band a colony as rapidly as possible and leave at the 
earliest possible moment so as not to disturb the birds any more than is 
necessary. Sometimes it makes quite a commotion when we are banding 
and frequently the birds come quite close to us in an endeavor to frighten 
us away. A bird will hit one of the banders once in a while. Some years 
ago my son, who was wearing a white sailor hat and located some distance 
from where I was, called that a bird had hit him. I looked around quickly 
enough to see the bird making quite an effort to get on a steady flight. 
The reason was that the boy was hit hard enough to break the scalp 
through the hat, and before long he had a lump about the size of a hickory 
nut. This was the only experience of the kind that we have ever had. 
We have never been able to stay long enough in an area to do any 
trapping of adult birds, but, had we been able to do so, we would have a 
great many station returns to the nesting area. O. L. Austin, of the Cape 
Cod, Mass., area, has done more banding of adult terns than anyone else 
in the country and has had unusual experiences. In 1941 Mr. Austin 
trapped one bird that we banded, six more were trapped in 1942, and one 
in 1943. Seven of these were banded on July 17, 1938, on Black River 
Island, in Lake Huron, and the other one was banded July 16, 1938, on 
Scarecrow Island, which is seven miles distant. It is certainly interesting 
that eight birds banded in this area have been trapped as nesting birds 
on the Atlantic coast. 
Birds reported to us through the Washington office came from the 
following areas: 60 were reported from Michigan, 10 from Florida, 8 from 
Massachusetts, 2 each from North Carolina and in the Gulf of Mexico, and 
one each from the following states: Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, New York, 
Ohio, Alabama, Indiana, Wisconsin and New Jersey. Four were reported 
from Ontario and one from Quebec. Recoveries in foreign countries were 
as follows: 4 from Peru, 2 each from Mexico, Panama and Cuba, 1 each 
from Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador and Costa Rica. It is interesting to 
note the length of time that elapsed between the time the birds were 
banded and the date of recovery in areas some distance from Michigan. 
One bird banded July 11, 1931, was recovered at Trujillo, Peru, nine 
months and twenty-eight days later. Another banded on the same day was 
captured alive aboard a fishing boat in the Peru area seven years and 
eight months later. Two other birds were recovered in Peru two years 
and five months and eight years and five months after banding. In other 
