CHART ILLUSTRATING EXHIBIT OF CANADIAN WATER BIRDS 



1. Willet {Catoptrophorus semipalmatiLs) 



2. Franklin's gull (Larus pipixcan) 



3. 4. Common tern (Sterna hirundo) 



5, 12, 13. Pintail (Dafila acuta) 



6. Baldpate {Aiareca americana) 



7. Blue-winged teal (Querquedula discors) 



8, 9. Ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis) 

 10, 1 1. Lesser scaup duck (Nyroca ajfinis) 



14. Marbled godwit (Limosa Jedoa) 



15. Canada goose (Branta canadensis) 



Theseiare, or perhaps one should say were, bird-paradises, for a number of serpents 

 have g-otten into this Eden. With the introduction of wheat-growing, land was plowed 

 to the edges of the sloughs, so that the nesting ducks there were disturbed. Some of the 

 sloughs were drained. Cattle grazing over the plains came to the water to drink, and 

 by trampling the ground, further added to the difficulties of the nesting birds. Even 

 nature seemed to conspire against them, for a long dry period in the 1930's still further 

 reduced the habitat av-ailable for water fowl. Botulism, a disease correlated with cer- 

 tain water conditions, also took its toll. These factors, plus the shooting of ducks, have 

 decimated the flocks in areas once teeming with ducks. 



Fortunately, public and private enterprises are at work putting water back into the 

 sloughs and rehabilitating the prairie duck-habitat: and we have adequate control 

 of shooting. All in all, with proper care, we shall continue to have our myriads of 

 marsh birds on the prairie. 



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