﻿•1 BULLETIN 1145, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Species from which returns have been received are as follows, the 

 numbers in the first column following each indicating the number of 

 individuals banded, and in the second the number recovered and 

 reported upon : 



Banded. Returned. 



Double-crested cormorant *_ 1 l 



Mallard 72 T2 



Gadwall 17 4 



Green-winged teal 33G 49 



Cinnamon teal 45 5 



Shoveler, or spoonbill 48 9 



Pintail 221 34 



Redhead 239 51 



White-faced glossy ibis 104 1 



Great blue heron 11 4 



Snowy heron 83 4 



American coot IS 1 



MALLARD. 



In comparison with some of the other species of ducks, the number 

 of mallards handled was comparatively small, as only 72 were banded 

 and released during the three seasons in which this work was carried 

 on. Of these, 22 — a little more than 30 per cent — were killed and 

 reported subsequently (see Table 1). Seven were secured near the 

 mouth of Bear River within a few miles of their place of release, 6 

 of them, and possibly 7, during the fall in which they had been 

 marked. The other 15 individuals divide into two main groups, one 

 of birds that remained until late fall or winter in the same general re- 

 gion as the mouth of Bear River, and the other of birds that made 

 extended migrations to other regions. 



In October two mallards marked during the preceding month were 

 taken on Bear River near Tremonton, not far in an air line from the 

 mouth of the stream. During November these ducks may wander 

 more extensively, as, though several were taken during this month 

 near the mouth of Bear River and one a short distance from Tremon- 

 ton, others were reported in the sloughs near Great Salt Lake, west 

 of Salt Lake City, and on Utah Lake, near Provo. In addition to 

 these, late in November one was secured near Logan, Utah, and an- 

 other on Snake River, in Fremont County, Idaho. Records for De- 

 cember are more widely scattered. One bird was killed on Bear 

 River, near Collinston, December 13, and another on the Logan River, 

 in Cache Valley, December 28. In the same month a drake was shot 

 far to the south, on the Sevier River, north of Delta, Utah. During 

 January one was taken near Pebble, Bannock County, Idaho, on the 

 14th, and another near Stone, in the same State, on the 19th. The 

 latter bird was free from June 17, 1915, to January 19, 1917. 



From this account it would seem that a number of mallards remain 

 in ponds and channels kept open by the inflow of spring water after 

 more extensive bodies of water are closed by ice. Such birds pass 

 north in suitable localities as far as the Snake River in Idaho. 



Return records from other States are notable more for their wide 

 scattering than for anything else. One banded bird secured near 

 Bishop, in Owens Valley, Calif, (in the Great Basin), on October 

 1G. does not necessarily indicate an early migration from the Salt 

 Lake Valley, for it had been at liberty for two years, so that there 

 is no certainty that it had come from Utah the year it was killed. 



