THE WATERFOWL FLYWAYS OF NORTH AMERICA 3 



and winter quarters, but it is not generally understood that these 

 routes are followed by the same groups of individual birds during 

 successive years. Migration studies by the banding method have 

 shown that by adhering more or less rigidly to any particular flyway 

 the ducks and geese tend to perpetuate not only that ancestral route 

 but also the groups of individuals that use it. The significance of 

 this discovery to problems of administration is obvious. 



THE FOUR IMPORTANT FLYWAYS 



The four major waterfowl fly ways of North America and their 

 tributary migration routes are sketched in the following paragraphs. 

 There is also briefly presented the status of their waterfowl popu- 

 lations. 



THE ATLANTIC FLYWAY 



The Atlantic flyway (fig. 1) may be described as extending from 

 the Atlantic coast west to the Allegheny Mountains and curving 

 northwestward across northern West Virginia and northeastern Ohio 

 to the western end of Lake Erie. It has at least three primary 

 migration routes and as many more that are also important as tribu- 

 taries. 



The extreme eastern route, which leads directly down the coast, 

 has as its northern origin the eastern Arctic islands and the coast of 

 Greenland. From these places come the greater snow geese {Chen 

 hyperborea) and the Atlantic brant {Brant a bernicla hrota), which 

 follow the coast line to winter quarters in the great bays and sounds 

 of Virginia and North Carolina. This also is the route used by large 

 numbers of black ducks {Anas rubripes) and Canada geese {B. 

 canadensis). These two species, however, occupy a curious part in 

 the picture of this flyway. The Canada geese and the black ducks, 

 so important to the sportsmen of New England, come chiefly from 

 the New England area, the Maritime Provinces of Canada, the Lab- 

 rador Peninsula, and Newfoundland. Few, if any, come from in- 

 terior points that are far from the seacoast, and they do not ordi- 

 narily travel very far south of Long Island Sound. A few of the 

 northeastern black ducks do drift south as far as the Carolinas, but 

 the Canada geese rarely go south of New England. 



Most of the black ducks of the south- and middle-Atlantic coast, 

 and practically all the Canada geese, come from interior points. The 

 ducks, which seem to come chiefly from western Quebec and Ontario, 

 leave their breeding grounds in this region and at first travel south- 

 westward through the peninsula of southern Ontario. This also is 

 the course taken by the Canada geese from the breeding grounds 

 around the eastern shores of Hudson Bay. L^pon reaching the west- 

 ern end of Lake Erie, where it is augmented by birds bred in Michi- 

 gan, the route divides, the majority of the birds turning abruptly 

 to the east, some tarrying a while in the area along the south shore 

 of the lake, but nearly all eventually making a cross-country flight 

 over Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia to the Atlantic coast, 

 which is reached in the vicinity of Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. 



This route from the northwest is of great importance. In addition 

 to being followed by the black ducks and Canada geese, it also is 



