THE WATERFOWL FLYWAYS OF NORTH AMERICA 9 



Most of the other geese, including the greatly reduced Ross's goose 

 {Chen rossi), and the ducks, however, that use the United States 

 part of this route, come from eastern Alaska, the Mackenzie Valley, 

 and other interior points. Again, the great breeding grounds of cen- 

 tral and northwestern Canada and eastern Alaska produce most 

 of the birds killed by California and Oregon sportsmen. Starting 

 in Alaska, Yukon, and Mackenzie, this route — which also is used 

 in common with many birds that are to follow other flyways — runs 

 southward through the Prairie Provinces. The Pacific flyway con- 

 tingent probably parallels closely the eastern foothills of the Rocky 

 Mountains. The route branches somewhere near the international 

 border, and while some birds continue southeastward into the Central 

 and Mississippi flyways, others turn southwestward across north- 

 western Montana and the Panhandle of Idaho, follow along the 

 Snake and Columbia River Valleys, and turn southward across cen- 

 tral Oregon to the great interior valleys of California. This is the 

 route followed by the pintails and the widgeons, or baldpates (Mareca 

 a?nericana) , which are of such importance to California sportsmen. 



The Bear River marshes of Utah probably furnish the majority 

 of the redheads that are killed for sport in California. Banding 

 records have indicated two routes that are roughly parallel. The 

 northernmost leaves the breeding grounds in a northwesterly direc- 

 tion and, describing an arc across southwestern Idaho and south- 

 eastern Oregon, enters California near the California-Nevada line. 

 The second route runs through central Nevada and reaches the Cal- 

 ifornia valleys near the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joa- 

 quin Rivers. 



The breeding grounds of interior British Columbia have been little 

 affected either by agricultural or drought conditions and continue to 

 produce a fairly good supply of waterfowl, but banding records have 

 shown that these birds have comparatively little importance to the 

 sportsmen of the United States other than to those of northwestern 

 Washington. The reason apparently is found in the relatively mild 

 climate of the Puget Sound section, which is the wintering ground 

 for most of the British Columbia ducks. Very few birds banded 

 in that Province have been recovered from points south of Wash- 



ington. 



DIVERSITY OF ROUTES COMPLICATES ADMINISTRATION 



It is of interest in this brief resume of the four major flyways and 

 their tributary migration routes to visualize the separate route sys- 

 tems in relation to each other when considered for the country as a 

 whole. (Figs. 1-4.) The result will indicate the complexity of the 

 problem of equalizing the shooting privileges of gunners in the differ- 

 ent parts of the country, among whom there is some sentiment that 

 the hunting regulations should favor the sportsmen of one section 

 even though discriminating against those of another. The adminis- 

 trative problems raised by such a complex system of flyways as is here 

 mapped makes it necessary to take into consideration the status of 

 the birds not only on the flyway of any one State but on the several 

 other flyways. as regards decreasing abundance and other factors of 

 far-reaching importance to the conservation of the species involved. 



