94]
MANGELS,
Colored
Bands
COLORED
METHODS
FOR USING
Bird-B•nding
April
BANDS
BANDS
AND
ARRANGING
DATA
By FREDERICKP. MANGELS
Ix 1933 Rudyerd Boulton (Netcsfrom The Bird Banders,W. B.
B. A., 8, April, 1933, p. 20) publisheda method of identifying individual birds by means of colored bands.
There has been an
increasinginterestin this type of work as appliedto the study of life
histories, social orders, populations, flock movements and other
studiesin which it is necessaryor advisableto recognize,as ind"viduals,a large number of birds.
However,nothinghas beenpublishedon the order of usingcombinationsor the arrangementof the data. I xx,
ishthereforeto suggest a somewhat simpler system and, also, a method of utmost
simplicity of arrangingthe combinations,wherebya bird wearing
four coloredbandsand a BiologicalSurveybandmay be immediately
identified as, for instance, bird 9-8743.
Four coloredbandsand a BiologicalSurvey band are placedon
eachbird, two coloredbandson eachleg. The four positionsof the
coloredbands shall be numbered1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively,as
shown in Figure 1.
EIGHT
LEFT
Figure 1
The colorsin any band combinationon any bird must always be
recordedin the order of their position. Yor example,a bird bearing
the coloredbandsshownin Figure 2 would have its colorcombinations recordedas YRBG and not YGRB, BRYG, or some other
order of recordingthesecolors.
Vol. IX
1938
M.•NGELS,
Colored
.Bands
[95
•La•k
RIGHT
LœFT
Figure 2
The-Biological
Surveybandmay be placedin any of the six
positionsshownin Figure 3.
3
•
RleHT
LEFT
Figure 3
To securethe variouscombinations
for a givennumberof colors
andthe properorderof use,a numberis assigned
to'.eachcolor,
as,for example,is shownin Figure4.
Yellow
Red
Green
Black
I
2
3
4
Figure 4
A schedule
is then madeusingall four digit numberscontaining
these,and only thesedigits. The colorcombinationsare taken from
96]
MANGELS,
Colored
Bands
Bird-Banding
April
thesenumbersby substituingthe colorsfor their respectivenumbers.
A sample scheduleis here shown (4 colors). It should be borne in
mind that these key numbersare not BiologicalSurvey numbers.
ColoF
No.
Comb.
1111
YYYY
1112
YYYR
1113
YYYG
1114
YYYB
4443
BBBG
4444
BBBB
Data
Figure 5
These combinationsare used in the order in which they appear on
the schedule. For the first series of colors the Biological Survey
band is always placed in position 1 (Figure 3).
This is called
Series I. ]¾hen all the combinations have been used the Biological
Survey band is shifted to position 2 (Figure 3) and all the colorsare
usedagain in the sameorder asin the previousseries. This is Series
II. This procedureis repeateduntil all six positionsfor the Biological
Survey have been used.
REO
'l '
YELLOW
I•IGHT
LEFT
Figure 6
By using the sequenceoutlined above it is possibleto ascertain
immediately the number of any banded bird that is seen. If, for
instance,we seea bird bearingbandsarrangedas shownin Figure
6, we write the co]or combinationin correct order: YRBR. Sub-
Vol. IX
1938
MIDDLETON,
Returns
andRecoveries
ofBirds
[97
stituting the respectivenumbers for the colors (Figure 4), we see
that this is bird 1242 and, since the Biological Survey band is in
2d position, the bird is 1242--Series II. A shorter form of writing
this is 2-1242.
This is recommended
as it makes for neatness and
simplicity in keepingdata. This number can be easily and quickly
located in the proper scheduleand any necessarydata recorded.
The advantagesof this system lie in its simplicity and the consequent ϥcilityin keeping and looking up data, and the fact that
all birds have the same number of bands. No bird can possiblybe
confused with another
due to the loss of one or more bands.
For smaller number of birds or for economicreasonsit may be
desirableto use a smaller number of bands. A similar system could
be evolved using two or three colored bands.
Four digit numberswould be usedwith a zero denotingthe blank
space. A table is given below showing the various possibilitiesas
to total number of combinationspossiblefrom a given number of
bands and colors.
Number of Bands
Including Biological
SurveyBand
Number of Colors
2 3 4 5412
7
12
48
18
108
24
192
30
300
36
42
588
96 486 1536375017776]14406
Linnaean Society, New York, N.Y.
RETURNS
AND
RECOVERIES
NORRISTOWN,
By R•¾•o•v
OF BIRDS
BANDED
AT
PENNSYLVANIA
J. --•IIDDLETON
Tn• following detailed listing of some returns at my banding
station at Norristown, Pennsylvania is given to emphasizeparticularly the persistencyof birds returning year after year to place of
birth, summer residence or winter residence. In the case of the
Catbirds, the details given supplement the age-recordsof this
speciespublishedby May ThacherCookeappearingin Bird-Banding
Volume VIII, pages 52-65.
The recoveriesin southern states give additional information as
to the wintering grounds of summer residents. All of the species
listed have beenrecoveredin the samestates during previousyears
and reported in former issuesof Bird-Banding.