«:*§. <^*X^*^ 





the next two days; he reported that, "for all practical purposes, the hunting 

 season was over for the State of North Dakota on the evening of the 9th." 

 In Illinois, Frank Bellrose (1951) described the heaviest passage for 1950 

 between November 9 and 11. Far to the south, on the Louisiana marshes, 

 John Lynch found that "new concentrations of ducks, principally Mallards, 

 showed up on November 8 and for several days thereafter." 



The ducks that Nord saw over Fergus Falls on November 8 probably had 

 crossed Delta earlier the same day and comprised the flight that arrived in 

 Illinois on the ninth. We estimated the speed of the birds passing over Delta 

 at from sixty-five to seventy-five miles per hour,' with a tail wind. Traveling 

 straight through, their schedule would carry them over Illinois the next day. 

 That such a long journey was taken is suggested by Nord's report, for on 



• All estimates of ground speed are by timing migrants over a course of known distance or 

 when direction and ground speed permit. 



103 



