occasionally common in the general vicinity of Memphis, Tenn. Most 

 of the birds push on, however, and during the period from the first 

 of November to the last of March fully 90 percent of the species are 

 concentrated in the area between the Sabine and the Mississippi Rivers. 

 On the return trip northward there is sometimes a tendency for some of 

 the blue geese to veer off toward the northwest, as they are occasionally 

 abundant in eastern South Dakota and southeastern Manitoba. It is of 

 particular interest to note that while sonie other geese and many ducks 

 start their northward journey at the first sign of awakening spring, 

 the blue goose remains in its winter quarters until the season there is 

 far advanced, seemingly aware that its own breeding grounds in the 

 Arctic are still in the grip of winter. 



Great Plains-Rocky Mountain routes 



A great western highway also has its origin in the Mackenzie River 

 delta area and in Alaska. This is used chiefly by the pintail and the 

 American widgeon or baldpate, which fly southward through eastern 

 Alberta to western Montana. Some localities in this area, as for ex- 

 ample, the National Bison Range at Moiese, Mont., normally furnish 

 food in such abundance as to induce these birds to pause in their migra- 

 tory movement. Upon resuming travel, some flocks move almost 

 directly west across Idaho to the valley of the Columbia River, from 

 which they turn abruptly south to the interior valleys of California. 

 Others leave the Montana feeding and resting areas and turn southeast- 

 ward across Wyoming and Colorado to join the flocks that are moving 

 southward through the Great Plains (fig. 15). 



Many redheads that breed in the Bear River marshes in Utah take a 

 westerly route across Nevada to California, but some leave these breed- 

 ing grounds and fly northeastward across North Dakota and Minne- 

 sota to join the flocks of these ducks that come out of the prairie regions 

 of Canada. A few of them even travel southeastward to the Atlantic 

 coast. This route can be traced by the records of ducks banded in sum- 

 mer in the Bear River marshes and retaken the following fall at points 

 in eastern Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minne- 

 sota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Maryland. Great numbers, 

 however, follow another route from these marshes across the mountains 

 in an easterly direction, where it almost immediately turns southward 

 through Colorado and New Mexico, and continues to winter quarters 



62 



