INTRODUCTION * 3 



^rovinces, north of North Dakota, and as far west as 

 Alberta. 



This region has been named "the ducks' paradise." 

 Millions of ducks are hatched in this region, although 

 their numbers have decreased much and the breeding 

 area has been much reduced, especially within the United 

 States. 



Mr. Wells W. Cooke, of the United States Biological 

 Survey, an authority on the migration of birds, says: 

 "The prairie districts of Central Canada, comprising 

 large portions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, 

 are 'the ducks' paradise/ Within the United States this 

 favored region extends to the North Eastern part of 

 Montana, the Northern half of North Dakota and the 

 North Western corner of Minnesota. The whole vast 

 region is crowded with lakes, ponds, sloughs and 

 marshes that furnish ideal nesting conditions and un- 

 limited food. Forty years ago every available nook was 

 crowded with water fowl, and the whole region, 200 

 miles wide by 400 miles in length, was a great breeding 

 colony and numbered its inhabitants by the hundreds of 

 thousands." 



The building of the Northern Pacific Railway across 

 the Southern boundary of "the ducks' paradise" was 

 followed by the building of the Canadian Pacific Rail- 

 way through the center of it, and, as Mr. Cooke well says, 

 it is evident that in the United States and Southern Can- 

 ada in a few years there will be no great breeding colo- 

 nies of the ducks most valued for sport and for the table. 

 Edmonton, Alberta, a growing city of over 20,000 in- 

 habitants, is about in the center of the breeding ground 

 for canvas backs and other desirable ducks, and other 



