56 CONSERVATION OF WATERFOWL 



In considering the waterfowl conservation problem, we can divide 

 it into three parts to correspond with three groups of the birds. We 

 have certain species whose breeding grounds are still as productive as 

 ever. These include all of the geese except one form of the Canada 

 Goose popularly known as the Honker. The nesting habitat of the other 

 forms of this species, that is, the Lesser Canada, the Hutchins' [Richard- 

 son's], and the Cackling Geese, as well as of the White-fronted, the three 

 forms of white geese, and the Blue Goose, are still practically unimpaired 

 and are as productive as ever. To a very large extent this condition 

 prevails also with respect to Eider Ducks, Old-squaws, and Scoters. To 

 insure an adequate crop of these birds it is necessary only to provide an 

 abundance of winter food and enough protection to insure the return 

 of sufficient brood stock to the nesting areas. No breeding ground 

 restoration is needed. 



Another great group of waterfowl, including the Mallard, Pintail, 

 Baldpate, Scaups, Green-winged Teal, and some others, use breeding 

 grounds extending from the shores of Bering Sea to Hudson Bay or 

 beyond and even well down into the United States. These are among 

 our principal game species. During the past few years there have been 

 records of Mallards breeding as far south as Tennessee, Iowa and Mis- 

 souri, also in California, Nevada and Oregon. Wherever there are 

 marshes throughout this wide territory this species is likely to nest. 

 Only a comparatively small part of its breeding grounds has been de- 

 stroyed. There is still available to the several ducks mentioned a tre- 

 mendous additional breeding grounds that the birds will use; such re- 

 storation is not as vital to the preservation of these species as it is for 

 certain others. It is very necessary, however, to maintain and improve 

 winter homes for these species which at present furnish the bulk of the 

 wildfowl available for sporting purposes. Their wintering grounds are 

 widely distributed over the United States, but their great concentrations 

 are in the southernmost thousand miles of the Mississippi Valley, along 

 the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, in certain valleys of western 

 Mexico, and along the Pacific coast of the United States. 



There is a third group of waterfowl, including some of the most 

 prized game species, whose breeding grounds have been very seriously 

 impaired in the past thirty or forty years by drought, agricultural drain- 

 age, and other developments. This division embraces the Canvas-back, 

 Redhead, Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teals, Gadwall and Ruddy Duck. 

 The greater proportion of the original nesting areas of these species was 

 in the United States and Prairie Provinces of Canada where agriculture, 

 drainage, and drought have done their worst in destroying waterfowl 

 environment. It was chiefly losses in these regions that forced the popu- 

 lation of these species downward to a level much below that of the more 

 widely ranging breeders. Restoration and maintenance of breeding 

 areas is necessary for the increase of these species even though they have 

 adequate wintering grounds. 



