Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-31
Wonderful and
Curious Flights
Made by Birds
Records of Banding Associa-
ton Shows Many Remark
able and Curious Feats.

RECORDS or bird travel with the
American Banding Association dis
close some curious things and few
facts that are stronger than fiction.
On June I. 1911, for instance, an
adult chimney swift fiuttered down
a chimney into the study of Ernest
Harold Baynes in Meridian, N. H..
and was promptly banded and re-
leased. The band bore the number
6396. At O'Clock p. m. on June
10, 1919, two chimney swifts flew
from the chimney into the same room
where the bird had been caught a
year and eight days before. When
these birds were taken in hand and
examined one of them proved to be
1925 Remarkable as II may seem,
this diminutive creature, less than six
inches in length, had travelled hun
dreds of miles to Central America or
spent the winter, and then had made
the long return journey at the ap-
proach of summer and found again
the chimney of his choice in a vii
lage of far-off New Hampshire. And
throughout his journeyings the little
aluminium ring had Travelled with
him
Two French Canadians were gun
ming along small river near the
hamlet of whitebread, in Southwest
ern Ontario, Canada, on August 5,
1912. Blackbirds, their intended
booty. were not numerous. and the
men were about to return TO CAMP
when one suddenly touched the other
on the arm and said, pointing to a
flying tern. You cannot hit him :
In answer to this challenge the sec
ond gunner wheeled quickly about
and took a difficult chance shot at
the fast disappearing bird. There
were many terms flying up and down
the stream, lowering in the air and
plunging for minnows, and 1t seemed
strange that the one shot should
have borne a band on its leg with
the number 1890 The finding of that
band resulted in letter to New York
from the gunner, Leo salois. On re-
ferring to 4,590 among the original
banding records it was found that the
bird In question had been marked
when about two weeks old at Saint
Clair Flats Canal, Mich, on August
10, 1909, by Mrs. s. A. Courts.
BY correspondence with MIR. Salois
it was learned that the terms were
apparently not nesting at White
bread. Ontario, and it is not unlikely
that the birds seen there had bred at
Saint Clair Flats and were INDUCING
in little rowing after the nesting sea-
son. However this may be, the facts
remain that the dead tern had worn
the aluminium anklet for three years,
minus eight days, had likely made
three round trips to the Gulf of Mex
leo or some other place in the tropics
to spend the winter each year since
1909, and when shot was within about
thirty-flve miles of the spot where 1t
was hatahed
A farmer by the name of August
Schilling. of Evansville, Ind. was
walking across his fields on April 1,
1912. when he frightened a butcher
bird from fence post where it had
been feeding on what proved to be
a bluebird. On picking up the victim
and scrutinizing It, Mr.. Schilling was
astonished to discover that the bird
wore a ring on it's right leg and that
the ring bore an inscription. He
wrote a letter. giving the number of
the band
This particular bluebird was one of
a brood banded by DR.. r. NJ. Strong,
of the University of Chicago. at West
Allis, Wis, on July 5, 1909. The band
had been carried two years and nine
months and had apparently caused no
Inconvenience. 1t is probable that
this bluebird had made two complete
migrations to the South and was
about to complete the third when he
was slain,
This last year the greatest progress
has been made in the work of band
ing birds in America. All told in the
twelve months 800 bands bave been
placed on birds. and some of them
have already yielded return records
possessing high degree of interest.
The total number of species banded
was seventy-tfree, a few of the more
unusual being black guillemot, great
black backed gull, tern, blossy ibis,
American egret barn owl, short
cared owl. chestnut-collared longspur
and dickoissel.
The fact that Mr.. Baynes's chimney
swift returned to its old stand after
an absence of nearly year in the
tropics is not accepted by the asso-
citation as proof in itself of the habit.
Before saying that chimney swifts
invariably return year after year to
the same chimney II would be adj
visable, not to say necessary, the
association thinks, to obtain many
similar records as to corroborative
evidence.