repon provides much infonnation useful in mak- 

 ing fall flight forecasts, and it pinpoints future 

 banding needs. 



Duek-teing collection surrey. — The 31,800 duck 

 hunters cwiiacted by the duck-wing collection sur- 

 rey in 1963 returned over PSaXX* duck wings to 4 

 collection sites. These wings were analyzed by 

 State and Federal technicians during January and 

 February 1964. and the resulting data were for- 

 warded to the Bird Poptilations Station for 

 analysis by automatic data-processing methods. 



The species composition of the duck kill during 

 the 1963-64 hunting season, as determined by this 

 survey. si;_-_ - " a continued decrease in the pro- 

 portion o: .i in the total kill. The propor- 

 ti<m has drt^ped from 39.0 percent in 1961 to 33.3 

 percent. Blue-winged teal, on the other hand. 

 doubled in importance in the two interior flyways- 

 The change may have resulted frmn early seasons 

 in certain States and an extremely mild autumn in 

 the upper iilidwesi. The proporricm of black 

 ducks and wood ducks in the kill showed slight 

 decreases in both the Atlantic and Mississippi Fly- 

 ways. Wood ducks ctHitinued to be the second 

 most commcm species in the bag in the Mississippi 

 Flyway (13.9 percent), and the third most com- 

 mcHi in the Atlantic Flyway ( 14.0 percent ) . 



Age ratios of the more common game species of 

 ducks showed slight increases in 1963. The 

 countrywide age ratio in the mallard kill showed 

 a slight increase in 1963 ( 1.26 m 1962 and 1.36 in 

 1963 ) . Black duck age ratios in the Atlantic Fly- 

 way kiD increased from 1.32 in 1962 to 1.-50 in 

 1963. Blue-winged teal age ratios showed the 

 largest increases of the species analyzed, the ratio 

 for the Central and Mississippi Flyways c<«nbined 

 iniOTeasing from 1.24 in 1962 to 3.04 in 1963. 



The sex composition of the mallard kill was of 

 special interest. Slight decreases in the propor- 

 tion of males in the kill suggested that hmiters 

 were not as selective as in 1962, when only one mal- 

 lard was allowed in the daily bag. 



The incidence of "bonus" scaup in the 1963 kill 

 appeared to be c<Hisiderably less than in 1962. 

 This may have been a reflection of the more liberal- 

 ized bag limits on other species in 1963. 



Whistling ntan hunting survey. — ^Utah's second 

 experimental whistling swan himting season was 

 evaluated by means of mail surveys, supplemented 

 by information provided by the Utah Department 

 of Fish and Game. This study, now in its second 

 year, has continued with only minor modifications 

 in htmting regulations and survey procedures. 



A season limit of one swan per permit holder 

 was established and 1.000 permits were issued to 

 htmter^: they bagged an estimated 392 swans in 

 1963 and an estimated 320 in 1964. On the other 

 hand, the number of swans reported knocked down 

 bm not retrieved decreased from 81 in 1962 to 62 

 in 1963. About 3S percent of the kill in 1964 was 

 young birds. whOe in 1963 this figure was about 

 48 percent. 



Goofe-tail collection i^uri-ey. — In 1963. a sample 

 of htmters sent 7.353 goose taUs to the Popula- 

 tions Center. Canada geese outnumbered all other 

 species in all flyways and in all States except 

 .South Dakota. Iowa. Miimesota. Louisiana, and 

 Texas, where the combined snow goose and blue 

 goose kill predominated. In Xew Jersey, the 

 -Vmerican brant was the most frequently shot 

 goose. Age ratios for the lesser snow goose in 

 the States of the Central Flyway showed a con- 

 sistent increase (a higher propwrtion of young as 

 cMnpared with adults), but there was little change 



I*ti- '•%' 



■5* "55 ^6 "57 ^58 "59 €-0 ^' "62 ^£5 6« 



Xnmber of bands iasoed (Irft) and nmnber <rf recovery reports received (right) at the Bird Banding Laboratorv. 



(Graphs bj Migratory Bird PopalatioDS Stati(Ki> 



14 



