The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-04-11
Habits of Our Feathered Friends
Discovered by American
Banding Society. r
10000 ALREADY ARE MARKED
Incredible Wing Mileage 10 Revealed
In Some Of the Reports-New Facts
About Domestic Relations OF
Jenny Wren and Husband.


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 IL years been
conducting their research on a 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
serial number. The bands are usu-
ally made of aluminium and are man
ufactured in about 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
lean Bird Banding association, and
approximately 10000 have been placed
by members on the legs of native wild
birds. Each ring is stamped with the
words, 1"Notify Am. Museum, N. ""
and following this, or on reverse side
Of the band, is a 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, its age whether nesting,
fledgling or adult), locality, date, name
Of bander and remarks. The bird.
having been thoroughly "catalogued,"
Is sent on. its way.
Long Mierations 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 it's nest on the
lonely shores of Great Slave lake, in
the Northwest territory Of Canada,
has been reported from Louisiana,
more than 1000 miles away; Mas
sachusetts tern, or sea swallow, has
been recovered a similar distance
from it's birthplace, in the waters off
the Venezuelan coast and chimney
swift, 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 $4,000 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 COM
mon crow, which was banded in the
nest at Berwyn, Pa, May II, 1914, and
shot while stealing chickens on the
sixth anniversary of the date of band
ing, May II, 1920, at Phoenixville, Pa,
only eight miles from the site Of It's
birth. The inscription on the alumni
mum band worn by this bird is as
legible today as it was when received
from the maker, notwithstanding the
six years Of rough treatment under
all weather conditions. One of the
most astounding details of bird life
brought out by banding has to do with
the domestic relations Of Jenny Wren
and her songful husband.
Wren Is Tickle.
Wrens habitually raise two large
families in rapid sequence each sea-
son, and in these circumstances it
would naturally be thought the head
Of the establishment would give his
uninterrupted attention to- his house
hold. Not so, however, with an Ohio
house wren, who, the moment his first
hatch of offspring was on the wing,
ruthlessly abandoned his little brown
wife and, moving off less than hun
bred yards, reared his second family
with newly found mate. This abom-
Unable fickleness might never have
been suspected had it not been for
the numbered rings used on all of the
characters involved.
Another house wren with history
is the "little old woman who lived in
a SHOE" She and her husband and
their 10 children (reared in two in
stallments) were all banded. No word
has ever been heard from the children
since they left home, but a year later
q wren was seen at the old "shoe bun
galow" with a bracelet on his leg, but
no mate was near. The observer is
left wondering if perhaps there is not
q wren Reno somewhere in the South.
OF the total of 10000 birds banded
approximately 400, or per cent. have
so far been heard from. and additional