MIGRATION RECORDS FROM WILD DUCKS AND OTHER BIRDS. 11 



coast in Texas. The spring migration carries the latter individuals 

 northward through the plains again, eastward as far as western 

 Missouri and north at least into southern Canada. Spring records 

 in the Missouri Valley drainage ceased after 1915, as in the follow- 

 ing year spring shooting in the United States was prohibited by 

 Federal law, and no further returns came from ducks killed at this 

 season. 



It may be noted that only a small part of the pintails found early 

 in the fall jn the Salt Lake Valley nest there, as the species is 

 only moderately common as a breeder in that region. Migrants 

 from other regions, probably to the northward, arrive early, even 

 in June, and continue to gather in suitable areas until fall. 2 



Banding records furnish some idea as to the average length of life 

 of a pintail after it reaches maturity. Of birds banded in Sep- 

 tember, 1914, one was taken in April and one in November, 1916, 

 one in January, 1917, and one in December, 1917. Of those marked 

 from August to October, 1916, one was shot in December, 1917, two 

 in January and one in November, 1918, while one was fortunate 

 enough to escape until the last of November, 1920, a period of 

 slightly more than four years. 



REDHEAD. 



Domestic ties in the redhead family are as loose perhaps as among 

 any of the North American ducks. Several females may use one 

 nest for their eggs, and when ducklings appear they are self-reliant 

 little chaps that as often as not start off on adventurous explorations 

 of their own, with no regard for the movements of their mother. The 

 parent may forsake her charges when they are less than half grown, 

 and it is the rule for them to be left to their own devices at an early 

 age. Though like some other children in their lack of respect for 

 j^arental guidance and opinion, young redheads are gregarious and 

 seek others of the season's hatching, so that they ordinarily travel 

 in company. These inexperienced birds, as they passed the duck 

 pens where birds convalescent from the duck sickness were confined, 

 came over in search of company, and clambered out on shore in an 

 attempt to join the ducks in the cages. Trapping them when they 

 were still unable to fly was an easy matter, so that in 1915 and 1916 

 many were captured and 239 were banded and released. Fifty-one 

 of these have been reported by hunters (see Table 7) , more than half, 

 28 to be exact, being taken in the Bear River marshes, all during the 

 fall of their release. 



Most of the birds were marked in August and September. Two of 

 the returns came during the month of September, one from a bird 

 found dead from the duck sickness, and one from an individual 

 drowned accidentally at the duck pens. Twenty-two were killed dur- 

 ing October, a number potted by hunters as they passed in boats up 

 or down the river, others shot at points on the bays in the delta of the 



2 See U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. No. 936, pp. 7-8. 



