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TO TAG BANDED DUCKS Sportsmen Asked to Co-Operatc in Determining Lines of Flight by Giving Facts of Killings. "Next fall it is hoped sportsmen will carefully examine all ducks killed to ascertain Avhcther or not any are banded," recently said a member of the American Bird Banding Association. "Wild ducks," he continued, "are trapped by those having permits and again liberated after having an aluminum band firmly fastened to one leg. These bands are numbered and also arc stamped with the address of the person or association doing the AA-ork. "A card index system is kept by those releasing he bird, listing all data in connection Alth each bird liberat6d. When the bird is killed the gunner is requested to communicate with the address on the band, giving the number, species of duck ind place nnd date killed. "From these facts it is easy to determine tlie routes traA-eled by the birds, and as more and more of this information accumulates the more certain we will be of their exact movements. INFORMATION OF MUCH VALUE. "To successfully protect AvaterfoAvl and to better shooting conditions oA-er the country it is imperative that we know more about the habits of these birds than Ave do at present. By some method yet to be devised we must knoAV to a certainty as to increase and decrease. "If birds are scarce in one shooting locality, Avhile they arc plentiful in other sections, we shonld know the reason AAiiy. It has been proved that birds follow the same migratory routes year after year. Individuals and their broods winter and nest at approximately the same points each season and folloAV the same air lanes during migration. "Comparatively speaking. feAV ducks nest east of Hudson Bay, and the general trend of the migration of AvaterfoAvl is from tho northwest to the southeast. Tlie majority of ducks AA-ihtering along the Atlantic coast are hatched in that A-ast area of march and prairie land lying Avest of Hudson Bay. "The bulk of the ducks that nest within the boundaries of the United States from Kansas and Nebraska nortlrwcst migrate to the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf coast for the Avinter. Their flight also has a southeastward tendency. Californias ducks are supposed-to come straight doAvn the coast line in a direct southern flight. FLIGHT OF BANDED DUCKS. "These conclusions have been arrived at by the gathering of much data by men who have devoted their liA-es to this AA-ork, and in the main they are undoubtedly correct. However, there is much important information still to be secured from tracing the lines of flight of banded ducks. "Just recently a banded duck has proved conclusively that occasionally ducks bear to the Avest in their southern migration. On October 20, 1918, H. S. Osier, 801 Dominion Bank Building, Toronto, Canada, banded and released an adult male black duck Avhlch he had trapped for this purpose at Lake ScugOg near Port Perry, Ontario. Canada. This duck Avas banded No. 30932, American Museum, New York. That same fall Harry Meier took this black mallard in the State of Michigan near Marine City. "This bird had AA-orkpd approximately 175 miles to the AvestAvard and only ninety miles to the south on the 200-mile migration. It seems probable that had not this duck been taken its line of flight would have been down the Mississippi Valley by Avay of the Kankakee, or to the Wabash and Ohio and then along the Mississippi, to winter either among the many birds using the SAvamps and marshes along this river or to continue the trip on doAvn to the Delta and gulf country."
