"The entire area may be visualized as a potential nesting ground 
although mich is not highly productive. In the mountain valleys are ml1ti- 
tudes of lakes of the mountain type. Here in silted-in creek outlets and 
bays, ducks and geese nest in scattered pairs. In the aggregate the po- 
tential possibilities of waterfowl production mst be very large. 
"The Province is a large producer of mallard and Barrow's goldeneye 
ducks, Other species are more scattering. Since the pintail, the bird 
that affords the backbone of the duck supply for the western United States 
and western Mexico prefers low, flat country as a nesting and wintering 
habitat, British Columbia, a region abounding in mountain lakes, camot 
ever rank in first place as a producer of this species." 
Returning to the United States in the latter part of July, about a 
month was spent by Mr. Goldman in an examination of nesting grounds in 
Oregon, Idaho, and California. The areas surveyed were chiefly Federal 
refuges, including Upper and Lower Klamath Lakes, Tule Lake, Malheur Lake, 
Minidoka Lake, Camas Creek, Bear River, Ruby Lake, and Sacramento. While 
his visit was too late to make accurate checks on the percentage of 
breeding birds, he records conditions at most points as being excellent, 
with ducks plentiful. 
Central and Mississippi Flyways 
Urgency of an investigation during the breeding season of the eastern 
race of the white-winged dove made it necessary for Dr. Geo. B. Saunders, 
the biologist of the Central Flyway, to remain in the Rio Grande Valley in 
Texas. Substituting for him in the Prairie Provinces of Canada, biologist 
Robert C. McClanahan of the Washington office, entered Saskatchewan at 
North Portal on May 30. 
During the next two months he worked back and forth across this 
Province and Alberta, pushing steadily northward to Montreal Lake and 
Waterhen Lake in Saskatchewan, and to Cold Lake, Lac la Biche, Lesser 
Slave Lake, and Peace River in Alberta. In the latter part of August he 
crossed southern Manitoba to the south end of Lake Winnipeg. His travel 
included more than 8,000 miles by automobile and an uncetermined distance 
by boat, wagon, and foot. 
When the ducks arrived on the prairies in the spring of 1940, many 
sloughs that had contained water the previous year were dry; little pre- 
cipitation had occurred in the fall of 1939, and in the spring of 1940 the 
snow melted slowly and the water seeped into the ground. As a result only 
a relatively small number of sloughs were available as nesting sites. 
On June 1 northeast of Regina, Saskatchewan, in the Qu'Appelle Valley 
it was estimated that there were twenty dry sloughs to every one contain- 
ing water. On June 7 between Old Wives and Mortlach, Saskatchewan, thirty— 
three dry sloughs were counted before one with water was seen. 
