TRADITIONS OF WATERFOWL 



but afterwards went over where she lit and missed her when she rose, 

 but dropped her with the second shot, a gray duck. The nest was prettily 

 placed at the edge of the bank, seven eggs all clean and fresh." * When 

 acted upon annually, the philosophy that to take only a few from the home 

 marsh is harmless must surely have accounted for a considerable loss of 

 breeding stock in some parts of the range. Ducks continued to pass aplenty 

 in migration ; but once the native birds with local breeding traditions were 

 killed, flights went through each spring with few or none stopping to nest 

 in some localities. 



We speak with contempt of the carefree, heavy gun pressure of the 

 past; yet even in our time, early-season wildfowling and careless gunning 

 on the breeding marshes threaten some late-maturing waterfowl like Can- 

 vasback and Redhead. In some parts of the nesting range the season con- 

 tinues to open on marshes where many young diving ducks and adult 

 females are still flightless or barely on the wing. Evidence of bag studies 

 shows that in some early-season openings, more Canvasback and Redheads 

 are killed in one or two days of gunning than are raised locally in a season 

 (Sowls, 1946; Hochbaum, 1947). In such early-season shooting, the careless 

 waste is sometimes quite unbelievable. On the opening day of the 1946 

 season on the Delta Marsh, a hot, windy September 16, it was estimated 

 that about half of the 4,000-bird bag spoiled and was thrown aside. Kit 

 Kitney, Winnipeg columnist, wrote that "heavy losses were due to the fact 

 that birds carried all day in the car, spoiled and had to be discarded . . . 

 We took only nine birds. This was fortunate, because we were too tired 

 to do anything about our game when we arrived home Monday, and on 

 Tuesday night they were too far gone and had to be thrown out."t On 

 September 17, 1946, in routine bag study, I saw a pile of more than two 

 hundred and fifty ducks, mostly Canvasback and Redhead, which were 

 being thrown away as spoiled, these on the kitchen floor of an Indian 

 woman who had contracted to process the birds for shipment. 



Besides spoilage, the products of early-season gunning on breeding 

 marshes are often cast away as too thin or pin-feathery. Frequently on the 

 Delta Marsh young Redheads have been left behind by hunters as not 

 worth taking home. The adult drake bagged in October is as fine and as 

 wary a bird as any Canvasback; but the little Redheads just on the wing 

 in September are thin-breasted, flabby birds, innocent of all experience 



Diaries of E. L. Brown, 1889-1901. Typed manuscript, Minnesota Historical Society, 

 t "Sportsmen Afield," Winnipeg Tribune, September 21, 1946. 



254 



