28 GAME BIBDS OF CALIFOBNIA 



enough; intentional concentration is to be still more deplored when 

 advantage is taken of it, and excessive depletion results. The failure 

 of many persons to appreciate the diminution in duck population is 

 due chiefly to the fact of this concentration of all the ducks which 

 under former, conditions wintered over a great extent of territory, 

 within a few localities made favorable to them by artificial means. 

 The other factors concerned, such as the efficiency of the firearms used 

 and the high degree of marksmanship, are really but supplementary to 

 this more fundamental factor. 



On the other hand, many conditions are afforded by the preserve 

 which favor the persistence of our duck supply. Some of these serve 

 directly to offset the detrimental effects of concentration. Probably 

 the most important of these is the maintenance of favorable feeding- 

 grounds which otherwise would be much sooner appropriated for 

 agriculture. The provision of a refuge during the closed season and 

 on non-shooting days, and the restriction of hunting, also detract 

 greatly from the evil effects of concentration. In fact, if we study 

 the problem entirely from the standpoint of the effect on the duck 

 population, we are led to the conclusion that the duck preserve is an 

 institution which at the present time is to be fostered rather than dis- 

 couraged. With plenty of available natural feeding grounds for ducks 

 this judgment would have to be reversed. But present conditions 

 certainly justify the conclusion. 



It would appear that the institution of the well regulated gun club, 

 occurring, as it has, at a critical stage in the adjustment of artificial 

 to natural conditions, is to be looked upon as a propitious rather than 

 as an adverse factor in the conservation of our duck supply. Whether 

 or not, as further changes result from increased human population, 

 this valuation of the preserve will persist, remains to be seen. 



