194 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 27, Art. 2 



first year, or year of banding, 20 the sec- 

 ond year, 11 the third year, and 6 the 

 fourth year" (Bellrose tS: Chase 1950: 

 25). The bandinji data have also been 

 used to delineate the mijj;ration routes of 

 ducks passing through Illinois. 



As part of an effort to evaluate losses 

 from crippling by hunters, several thou- 

 sand ducks were trapped and fluoroscoped 

 for shot pellets and broken bones. Among 

 apparently healthy mallards, 36.4 per 

 cent of the adult drakes, 18.0 per cent 

 of the juvenile drakes, and 21.4 per 

 cent of the hens were carrying one or 

 more shot pellets imbedded in flesh or 

 internal organs (Bellrose 1953^:344). 

 "Of the ducks . . . knocked down by 

 hunters, as reported from various sections 

 of the United States, 22.5 per cent were 

 not retrieved" (Bellrose 1953^:357). 



A spectacular die-off of mallard ducks near 

 Grafton in January, 1947, prompted a joint 

 investigation by the Natural History Survey 

 and the United States Fish and Wildlife 

 Service [now V. S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries 

 and Wildlife]. A still greater die-off in the 

 same area a year later attracted the attention 

 of officials of the Western Cartridge Com- 

 pany of East Alton. As an outgrowth of 

 the situation, a co-operative investigation of 

 lead poisoning in waterfowl was begun in 

 July, 1948, by the Illinois Natural History 

 Survey, the Western Cartridge Company, 

 which is a Division of the Olin Industries, 

 Inc. [now Olin Mathieson Chemical Corpora- 

 tion], and the Univcrsitv of Illinois (Jordan 

 & Bellrose 1951:3-4). 



Although Lubaloy shot and several 

 lead alloys were tested as substitutes for 

 commercial lead shot, none showed prom- 

 ise in alleviating lead poisoning in water- 

 fowl (Jordan & Bellrose 1950:167-8). It 

 was estimated by Bellrose (1959) that 

 each year approximate!) 4 per cent of the 

 mallards of the Mississippi Flyway die 

 from lead poisoning and that an addi- 

 tional 1 per cent are afflicted with lead 

 poisoning but are bagged by hunters. Al- 

 though several other species of ducks in- 

 gested larger numbers of shot per bird 

 than did the mallard, the mallard suffered 

 the highest rate of loss. Mortality from 

 lead poisoning proved to be greater among 

 ducks of the Mississippi Flyway than 

 among those of other fly ways. The use 

 of iron shot as a substitute for lead shot 

 was suggested as a possible means of con- 

 tending with the lead poisoning problem 



in the event drastic measures should be- 

 come necessary. 



The means by which ducks find their 

 way from their breeding to wintering 

 grounds has been under investigation. 

 Juvenile blue-winged teals were captured 

 in migration in Illinois and held in cap- 

 tivity until all the other blue-winged 

 teals had migrated south of the United 

 States (Bellrose 1958fl). They were then 

 banded and released. From recoveries 

 of bands it was found that these juveniles, 

 though unfamiliar with the route, flew 

 southward along lines of flight similar to 

 those of adults. Experiments with wild 

 mallards demonstrated an ability to orient 

 by celestial means (Bellrose 1958//). 

 The initial flight of mallards released in 

 unfamiliar areas was northward on clear 

 days or nights and in apparently random 

 directions when skies were cloudy and 

 sun and stars were obscured. 



The Mourning Dove. — The mourn- 

 ing dove became the subject of an in- 

 tensive research effort in the autumn of 

 1948 when it was seen that data were 

 needed for an objective evaluation of 

 claims that doves were being shot to ex- 

 tinction by hunters in Illinois. The kill 

 of doves in 1946 and 1947 was estimated 

 from hunter reports to have been 200,000 

 in each year and about 300,000 in 1949 

 (Hanson & Kossack 1950:31). It was 

 later determined that the kill was fairly 

 evenly distributed over the state (Mar- 

 quardt 5c Scott 1952). 



A program of dove banding, particu- 

 larly of nestlings, was undertaken to de- 

 termine points of origin of populations. 

 Banding by amateur co-operators was en- 

 couraged (Kossack 1955), and a tech- 

 nique employing elastic adhesive tape to 

 secure bands on small nestlings was de- 

 veloped (Kossack 1952). These aspects 

 of the program were later adopted on a 

 country-wide scale by the U. S. Bureau 

 of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. 



A portable candler was constructed for 

 aging dove eggs in the field (Hanson 

 1954). Photographic and descriptive 

 guides for aging incubated eggs and 

 nestlings were prepared (Hanson 6c Kos- 

 sack 1957a). The predominance of uni- 

 sexual broods in mourning doves was 

 found in early studies (Kossack & Han- 

 son 1953). This subject is being treated 



