, 1g.-' 
 
 
LOUISIANA CONSERVATION REVIEW 
 
 
Bird Banding in Louisiana Discloses Interesting Returns 
                                 By Honorable E. A. Mcllhenny 
 
 
HE marking of birds with a small piece of 
     metal, on which there is stamped a num- 
     ber and an address, has become generally 
recognized by naturalists as a valuable means 
for determining much of the life history of these 
interesting and valuable denizens of our for- 
ests, fields, waters, and marshes. 
    The placing of metal bands around the legs 
of birds so marked that they could be returned 
to an address by anyone who captured the 
marked bird has been practiced by individuals 
from time to time for a great many years, but 
it was not until the fall of 1909 that a con- 
certed effort was made to carry on this work 
in a systematic manner. At the annual meeting 
of the American Ornithologists Union, held in 
New York City, in 1909, a number of persons 
interested in bird migration formed the Amer- 
ican Bird Banding Asociation, with head- 
quarters at the American Museum of Natural 
History. This society issued, bands to its mem- 
bers, on which was stamped a number and 
these words, Ret. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. N. Y. 
It was the duty of the individuals who placed 
a band on a bird to send a record of the band 
number and the species of the bird at once to 
the office of the society in New York where the 
 
 
proper entry was made; and if that bird was 
taken by anyone, that person in turn would on 
reading the inscription on the band, send it as 
directed. It was hoped by this method to 
learn, 
    1. How long birds live. 
    2. To determine if birds return year after 
      year on migration to the same place. 
   3. The route of birds during and at the 
      end of migration in relation to the spot 
      at which they are banded. 
   There are many other points in the life his- 
tory of birds that can be learned by banding, 
but the three stated above are the principal 
ones. There are two methods used in securing 
birds for banding. 
    1. The finding of their nests and placing 
       the bands on the nestlings. 
   2. Capturing the mature birds by trapping. 
   The American Bird Banding Association 
was only intermittently active in this work, and 
in 1920 the work of the society was taken over 
by the United States Bureau of Biological Sur- 
vey, and since that time the work has been 
carried on with great activity and much Val- 
uable and interesting information pertaining to 
our birds gathered. 
 
 
Blue Geese, Avery Island, La. 
 
 
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