272 Union Bay 



and shelter if sufficient breeding stock is to be available in 

 the spring. On the other hand, the hunting season is the 

 period of harvest, the pay-off. Consequently the hunters of 

 each district favor refuges if they are not in their vicinity, 

 but north or south of them. They want no local protection 

 for ducks passing in the hunting season. What have wild 

 fowl been raised for, if not to shoot? 



I did not have to be an expert on botulism, migration, or 

 the diseases of concentration to understand the main trends 

 affecting the pintails before me. All of the four phases of 

 their life had to prosper in order for them to perpetuate their 

 kind. They must have proper wintering grounds, successful 

 spring migrations, adequate nesting areas, and a return 

 migration route which would insure the passage of enough 

 birds to provide sufficient breeding stock. Failure in any of 

 these factors imperiled future supplies. What was the effect 

 of modern civilization on these factors? 



I could see improvement in only one aspect. The prohibi- 

 tion of spring shooting had made certain the passage of a 

 greater percentage of birds on the way to their breeding 

 grounds, although, of course, the number of birds is only a 

 fraction of the four hundred million which was the estimated 

 population in 1850. 



In all other phases I could see only, deterioration. The 

 winter grounds continue to shrink because of the drainage 

 and improving of farms, the advance of towns, the improve- 

 ment of resort sections, and the determined pressure of 

 ranchers who resent the damage done by the huge concen- 

 trations of wintering birds. The northern breeding grounds 

 have been attacked by droughts, which rendered whole dis- 

 tricts useless for years. The number of wild fowl which nor- 

 mally nest in the vicinity of farms has been steadily cut 

 down. In my own case I could think of a dozen fair-sized 

 marshes in the area where I was raised. All of them have 

 been drained. Almost everybody I talk to has made similar 



