CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 167 



overcome 8000 quail were secured during the first six weeks of 1934. 

 The Division expects to receive considerable more birds before opera- 

 tions cease for the season. We anticipate that the unused portion of 

 the permit for 100,000 birds will be received after the close of the 

 coming nesting season. 



All imported quail are received by Division employees at the 

 border, where they are checked and then transported to the State Game 

 Farm at Chino. Here they are held under observation for from two to 

 three weeks after which each is banded with one of the Division's 

 bands and the birds are then liberated in suitable areas. Under pres- 

 ent plans these Mexican quail will only be liberated in California in 

 areas south of the Tehachapi where types of country closely approxi- 

 mating their native habitat obtain. — A. E. Biirghduff, February 21, 

 1934. 



REVISED ESTIMATE OF 1933 CALIFORNIA WATERFOWL 



ABUNDANCE 



A preliminary note on waterfowl abundance in California during 

 the 1933 season appeared on pages 78 and 79 of the January number 

 of this quarterly. 



It now appears in light of subsequent and more complete reports 

 that this note, which was written before the close of the 1933 hunting- 

 season, was too optimistic. 



Captain of Patrol William J. Harp reported that duck hunting in 

 the Humboldt Bay district last season was the poorest during his six 

 years' residence in that area. He believes that less than 25 per cent 

 of the number of ducks present in that region three years ago were in 

 evidence during the 1933 season. Harp reported that the widgeon was 

 the commonest species throughout the entire past season and that the 

 largest decrease in numbers appeared to be among sprig and mallard. 



Late reports from the Sacramento Valley continue to confirm the 

 concentration of a large number of ducks in the Butte Creek Basin 

 region, but shooting elsewhere in the Valley, particularly in the so-called 

 "West Side" area, between Williams, Colusa and Willows, wa.s excep- 

 tionally poor last season due to a distinct shortage of ducks in that 

 area. Our earlier report to the effect that Suisun Bay and marshes 

 harbored more ducks in 1933 than in the previous year seems to be 

 entirely confirmed by later reports. However, more recent advices 

 from the Sonoma and Napa marshes and the San Pablo Bay region of 

 San Francisco Bay indicate fewer ducks in that area last year than in 

 the previous season. 



Similarly later reports from the Wasco-Delano section of northern 

 Kern County are contradictory to earlier reports we received, in that 

 it appears that fewer birds were present there in 1933. 



Game Warden E. H. Glidden, San Diego, provided a very careful 

 check on the number of ducks killed on the City Water Department 

 lakes and Sweetwater Lake in San Diego County which afford most of 

 the duck shooting in that region. These reports indicate a total kill of 

 42,638 ducks on these lakes which formed an average of 4.3 birds per 

 hunter. Glidden advised that in this area, the sprig is apparently the 

 only species of duck that is holding up in numbers satisfactorily. He 



