Author's Preface 



1ms is a story of the travels of waterfowl. Many discussions 

 of bird passage begin with migration, but I choose to speak first of the 

 flights of ducks and geese on their home range. The wider journeys are 

 not to be understood, I believe, without an examination first of the patterns 

 of local behavior. Part I of this book is therefore an analysis of the movements 

 of waterfowl on their home range on the Delta Marsh in southern Mani- 

 toba. 



Migration is discussed in Part II as I have studied it directly in the field, 

 mostly in Manitoba, and as I have followed it in the literature for othei 

 regions. During the preparation of the manuscript, some helpful friends 

 inquired, in effect: "What you say about waterfowl is understood, but how 

 does one explain the migrations of Arctic Tern and Golden Plover?" I can 

 but reply that this book concerns the birds I have watched. I hope others 

 will make more extensive studies of tern and plover, but I have tried to 

 heed Farner's warning against "the rather frequent tendency to transfer 

 conclusions concerning one species into explanations concerning another." 

 Moreover, this is merely a discussion; I have not aimed at over-all conclu- 

 sions. I feel, with Herbert Spencer, that "the truth generally lies in the 

 co-ordination of antagonistic opinions," and I simply report observations and 

 ideas that will, I hope, stimulate further study. 



A pigeon fancier I know acknowledges no mystery in the homing be- 

 havior of his flock. "How do they find their way? By instinct, of course 1" 

 So, too, some have explained migration; many unknowns have been cata- 

 logued under the convenient tab of instinct. Such an approach does not 

 always take into account our present understanding of bird behavior. How- 

 ever dominant the inborn heritage of action, each bird lives freely in an 

 elastic environment where its responses to its companions and surroundings 

 are constantly being modified through experience. I believe that the migrant 

 may be instinctively related to the patterns of its ecological environment 



