LOUISIANA CONSERVATION REVIEW 
 
 
Twenty-two Years of Banding Migratory Wild 
 
              Fowl..at Avery Island, Louisiana 
 
                                  By E. A. McILHENNY 
 
 
I BEGAN trapping and banding migratory wild 
   fowl in Jandary of 1912, using at first strip 
   bands made of pure tin having a lead seal. 
These were private bands and, although a large 
number of them were placed on ducks of various 
kinds, not very many returns were received; I think 
largely due to the fact that the bands were private. 
  On February 14, 1916, I began using bands sent 
its members by the American Bird Banding As- 
sociation, whose headquarters were in the Ameri- 
can Museum of Natural History, New York. 
  In 1921 the work of the American Bird Band- 
ing Association 
was taken over 
 
 
States as follows: Alabama, Arkansas, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, California, 
North Dakota, South Dakota, Florida, Georgia, 
Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Idaho, Kansas Kentucky, 
Louisiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Mississippi, 
Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Nebraska, Oregon, 
Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, West 
Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, various parts of 
Alaska. 
  Then provinces of Canada including: Alberta, 
Manitoba, Northwest Territory, Ontario, Sas- 
katchewan, Quebec, Yukon Territory, Chipinyan, 
                              British Colum- 
 
 
by the United 
States Bureau 
o f Biological 
Survey, and 
from then un- 
til now I have 
cooperated i n 
b i r d banding 
work with the 
U. S. Biologi- 
cal Survey. My 
complete rec- 
ords go back 
more than 
twenty years, 
and in that 
time much val- 
uable data on 
the life-history 
of our wild 
 
 
rowl has ac-                Edward Mcllhenny Bandin 
cumulated. 
  Of migratory wild fowl I have banded twenty- 
one-thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six be- 
tween January, 1912 and December 31, 1933, cov- 
ering nineteen species as follows: Greater Scaup, 
Lesser Scaup, Ring-Neck, Widgeon, Gadwall, Mal- 
lard, Mottled Duck, Dusky Duck, Pintail, Blue- 
Winged Teal, Green-Winged Teal, Spoonbill, Red- 
Head, Canvasback, Wood Duck, Florida Gallinule, 
Coot, Blue Goose, Lesser Snow Goose. 
  From these banded fowl there has been returned 
from birds killed or otherwise captured, up to De- 
cember 31, 1933, 2,116 bands. These returns cover 
pretty well all of North America. 
  Bands having been returned from thirty-three 
 
 
ig P 
 
 
bia, Newfound- 
land. 
  Four Mexi- 
can States : 
Matamoras, 
Coahuila, Cam- 
peche, Laguina 
Palos Prietos, 
and Guatemala. 
  The usual 
conception o f 
bird migration 
is a north and 
south move- 
ment. If this 
w e r e strictly 
true it would 
be expected 
that the bulk 
 
 
intails. Februeary, 1934.      o f t h e w i 1 l 
                               fowl banded at 
 Avery Island, La., would on their journey to the 
 northern nesting grounds follow rather a narrow 
 territory and would follow about this same terri- 
 tory on their return from the North to their win- 
 tering grounds South. A study of the accompany- 
 ing chart will show that bands taken from wild 
 fowl banded at Avery Island, La. have been re- 
 turned from a territory covering the breadth of 
 the lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, 
 and from the Arctic to the Tropics; showing con- 
 clusively that Louisiana is the focal point to which 
 a large part of the wild fowl of North America 
 come in Winter. 
   The greatest number of wild fowl banded in 
 
 
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