problems that must be accepted as a challenge to our managerial ability. 
Investigations of the status of migratory game birds by the Fish and 
Wildlife Service is a continuing project. War conditions are having their 
inevitable impact on personnel and operational facilities, but the work goes 
ahead through the utilization of such resources as are available. In their 
search for the truth, biologists of the Service again covered the length and 
breadth of the continent, and their reports now constitute the largest and 
most accurate storehouse of information in existence on this subject. The 
summary of reports for 1940-41 was issued as Wildlife Leaflet 196 (July 1941). 
This year's statement, though considerably condensed for reasons of economy 
contains information that should be of interest to all who are concerned with 
the future of American sport afield. 
PART 1: MIGRATORY WATERFOWL 
Spring Migration 
The inventory of January 1941 showed that the continental population 
of game ducks and geese, though estimated to be about 70,000,000, was the 
smallest increase recorded since the inauguration of the restoration progran, 
and indicated that the harvest of 1940 came perilously close to the entire 
crope Reports by 393 observers on the spring migration supported the con- 
clusions based on the inventory ~- 114 reporting no change, 173 an increase, 
and 50 a decrease. While the situation thus reflected was satisfactory, a 
percentage comparison with similar data for the spring migration of 1940, 
showed a marked falling off in the increase category, with an almost equiva- 
lent rise in that for no change. In 1940, 50 percent. reported no change, as 
against 51 percent in 1941, while 25 percent reported no change as against 
34 percent for 1941. Nevertheless, the 1941 reports of decrease showed a 
1 percent drop below those in this classification for 1940. 
Breeding-ground Surveys 
Pacific Flyway 
Confident in the belief that the northern breeding grounds of Canada 
continued to be productive, the biologist of the Mississippi Flyway, Charles 
E. Gillham i egain undertook waterfowl investigations in Alaska, leaving 
Nenana early in the season on the fishery boat Coot. Proceeding down the 
Yukon River to Mountain Village, he there established contact with a trader 
and made arrangements for transportation to Chevak on the lower Kashunuk 
River. This point was used as a headquarters for the season's work. 
In the absence of previous work in this area, direct comparisons of 
waterfowl populations could not be made, but from constant questioning of 
natives and others, Gillham concluded that ducks had made a decided increase, 
although the conditions of geese were not so favorable. in summing up a 
voluminous report, Gillham refutes the common belief that because so much of 
SSeS Se Se eee wee eee 
1/ Biologist Gillham is now attached to the Alaska Game Commission, with 
headquarters at Juneau, Alaska. He has been succeeded on the Mississippi Fly- 
way by Robert H. Smith, whose headquarters are at the Upper Mississippi River 
Wildlife and Fish Refuge, Winona, Minn. 
2 
