aoe UCU B PON BUEN bs 
West Indies, Central America and Patagonia. The bird caught was 
on its way south to its winter quarters where it would remain all 
winter and then return to its nesting grounds on the Arctic Coast 
where it would arrive in May. 
August, 1988, and sandpiper-banding again at Calumet Lake. On 
the seventh I saw that one of the few sandpipers present wore a 
band. Hope jumped high. I had not placed any bands yet. I won- 
dered who could have banded it. Suddenly it entered the trap. Yes, 
it was 37-52348! The band was so worn that it had to be replaced 
and the bird now wears band 38-20307. 
It was almost beyond belief that a little sandpiper five and a 
half inches long had survived the shooting at the lake and the many 
dangers of its fourteen thousand mile journey and, amazingly, had 
been trapped and banded again by the same person who had banded it, 
in the same place, a year before. 
Blue Island, Ill. 
A Popular Bird Roost 
By ESTHER A. CRAIGMILE 
For almost twenty years I have been observing a bird roost along the 
Des Plaines River. At first I found flocks of robins and bronzed 
grackles with a few red-winged blackbirds occupying the hawthorns 
on the east side of the river in Thatcher Woods. 
Some years ago the birds moved across the stream where they 
chose a five acre tract of hawthorns. 
Since the starlings have invaded this area they have appro- 
priated the same roost. The redwings have entirely disappeared. 
During fall migration the starlings have been especially conspicuous. 
During the fall of 1938 I visited the west bank several evenings 
and made a record of some observations. 
Aug. 22. I wandered across the cricket field soon after seven 
and found the huge cottonwood boasting of more birds than leaves. 
I expected to see 10,000 but there must have been a million for they 
continued to arrive in large flocks from all directions for a half hour. 
I clapped my hands under the tree and heard a whirr of starling 
wings as they crossed the river. It was but a few moments before 
the tree was black with new arrivals. As more flocks appeared large 
numbers dropped noisily into the hawthorn thicket for the night. 
By 7:30 I began to notice purple martins coming in large flocks 
from the northwest. My vision easily scanned 30 acres which had a 
ceiling above the tree tops 100 feet deep dense with martin life. As 
I glanced toward the sunset glow a ceaseless procession of our largest 
swallows continued. An occasional twitter was heard. A few bouts 
Were observed as males came too close together. The birds paid no 
attention to the noisy boys on the athletic field. 
It was the most spectacular migration of purple martins I had 
ever witnessed. Since the martins are the first swallows to arrive in 
