DECREASE OF WATERFOWL. 11 



tion of waterfowl. Since 1885, however, the problem of duck 

 preservation in North America has entirely changed. 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 northeastern part of 

 Montana, the northern half of North Dakota, and the northwestern 

 corner of Minnesota. The whole vast region is crowded with lakes, 

 ponds, sloughs, and marshes that furnish ideal nesting conditions and 

 unlimited food. Forty years ago every available nook was crowded 

 with waterfowl, 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. To the northward the forests formed 

 a partial boundary; to the southward, the general absence of suitable 

 breeding grounds was the controlling factor, restricting the breeding 

 waterfowl to the few lakes and marshes. The number of breeding 

 ducks decreased rapidly from central North Dakota southward, until 

 the outposts were reached in the lake region of southern Wisconsin, 

 the Kankakee marshes of Illinois and Indiana, a few favored spots in 

 southwestern Minnesota, and the lakes of north-central Iowa. In 

 southern Wisconsin in 1864, every pond hole and every damp depres- 

 sion had its brood of young ducks. During the next fifteen years the 

 farming of the region changed from grain raising to dairying, the 

 marshes were drained, the former duck nurseries became grazing 

 grounds, and duck hunting there was a sport of the past. 



An article written in 1877 on the birds of northeastern Illinois 

 enumerates 12 species of ducks as breeding commonly in the vicinity 

 and 3 others as occasionally found there in summer. At present, a 

 brood of young ducks in this region is rare. In 1885 some 14 species 

 bred near Clear Lake, Iowa, and 16 species at Heron Lake, Minnesota. 

 Now scarcely any ducks breed at either lake. But the places just 

 mentioned were merely the outskirts of the " ducks' paradise." As 

 great a change has taken place in the very heart of the breeding 

 grounds. The Northern Pacific Railroad cut across its southern border 

 in Minnesota and North Dakota and this was soon followed by a north 

 and south line to Winnipeg. Other shorter branches were built later, 

 but the final doom of the ducks was apparent when the Canadian Pacific 

 Railroad crossed between Winnipeg and the Rocky Mountains the 

 finest duck breeding grounds on the continent. During the past 

 decade, the last stronghold of the waterfowl has been invaded, and 

 soon the' great breeding colonies of northern Alberta and Saskatchewan 

 will be of the past. The population of North Dakota increased many 

 fold from 1880 to 1900, and during this same period the vast prairies 

 of central Canada were changed to wheat fields. It is evident, there- 

 fore, that in the United States and southern Canada in a few years 

 there will be no great breeding colonies of the ducks most valued for 



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