The Holbrook news., 1921-04-15
Habits of Our Feathered Friends Discovered by American
 Banding Society.
10000 ALREADY ARE MARKED
Incredible Wing Mileage Is Revealed in Some of the Reports-New Facts About Domestic Relations of
 Jenny Wren and Husband.

New York.-The habits of birds, the Ige they attain, the dispersal or dis tribution of their young, their mating customs, the strength of the homing instinct, the consistency with which migrant birds return to given areas in their winter range, routes followed by individual birds, and even polygamy these and countless other problems the American Bird Banding associa- ton seeks to solve by methods that leave no opportunity for questioning the accuracy of the date.
 The several hundred members of the association have for F years been conducting their research on large scale in the western hemisphere, and European societies whose aims are identical with those of the American workers have been operating since 1898. These bodies of investigators pursue their experiments by the use of rings, bands of tags, each bearing an inscription or return address and a serial number. The bands are usu- ally made of aluminium and are man. ufactured in about a dozen different sizes to fit the legs of all birds, from the smallest warbler to the clumsy pelican and the mighty eagle.
 Fifty-eight thousand of these bands have. so far been made for the Amer ican Bird Banding association, and approximately 10000 have been placed birds. Each ring is stamped with the words, Notify Am. Museum, N. Y," and following this, or on reverse side of the band, is serial number. At the time the band is placed on the bird the bander records on a stan- dard file card all information relating to the operation. These data include the number of the band, the name of the bird, it's age (whether nestling. f1edgling- or adult, locality, date, name of bander and remarks. The bird, having been thoroughly 'catalogued," is sent on it's way.
 Long Migrations Recorded.
 Workers for the association have carried bands into the remotest re- gions. As members of scientific and exploring parties they have placed the tags on birds in Alaska, Greenland, Labrador, and even in the antarctic a thousand miles from Cape Horn. A young robin, banded in its nest on the lonely shores of Great Slave lake, in the Northwest territory of Canada, has been reported from Louisiana, more than 2,0O0 miles away; a Mas sachusetts tern. or sea swallow. has been recovered similar distance from it's birthplace, in the waters off the Venezuelan coast, and a chimney swift, a bird less than six inches long, has been recorded at it's New Hamp- shire summer home after three sea sOnal journeys to South America. in- volving almost incredible wing mile age, the minimum distance covered having been 1S,OOO miles.
 Aside from the birds which are sys- tematically trapped, wild birds, either dead or alive, fall into human hands in a variety of ways
 The longest period record thus far turned in his been produced by a con- mon crow, which was banded in the nest at Berwyn. Pa. May IT. 1914, and shot while stealing chickens on the sixth anniversary of the date of band ing, May IT, 1920, at PhOenixville. Pa, only eight miles from the site of it's