4 BULLETIN 794, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
great numbers both south and north of Nebraska. The migration 
flights here, however, are still large and show that there remains 
a good supply of waterfowl, which with proper protection and 
reasonable regulation of shooting will continue indefinitely to fur- 
nish excellent sport. The breeding waterfowl of the sandhills also 
have suffered from hunters, particularly in spring. On many of 
the lakes there are clubhouses owned by sportsmen from cities out- 
side of the county, who were long in the habit of shooting here 
regularly in spring. As a natural consequence, the breeding ducks 
were seriously interfered with and very greatly reduced in numbers. 
The regulations issued by the Department of Agriculture under 
Federal laws protecting migratory birds have prohibited spring 
shooting throughout the United States as a necessary means of pro- 
tecting ducks during the spring migration and the early part of 
the breeding season. Since the enactment of the Federal statute 
of 1913, known as the Federal migratory-bird law, there has been 
comparatively little spring shooting in the sandhill region, for the 
law seems to have been very well observed. In fact, there seems to 
be among the inhabitants of the country much sentiment in favor of 
the abolition of spring shooting, and in this respect no hostility to 
the Federal law, for many people who live here seem to regard the 
ducks as undesirable and unfit for food in spring. 
In all the localities that the writer visited he made careful in- 
quiries regarding the effect that the stopping of spring shooting has 
had on the numbers of waterfowl, particularly ducks. It is very 
gratifying to note that after the Federal law went into effect ducks 
began steadily to increase in Nebraska, particularly in the lakes of 
eastern Cherry County, those about the headwaters of the North 
Loup Biver, and at the Cody Lakes. As one resident expressed it, 
as soon as the ducks find out that they will not be disturbed in 
spring, they come back in increasingly large numbers. 
FUTURE OF WATERFOWL IN THE SANDHILL REGION. 
In its natural state — that is, unaffected by the presence of man — 
the sandhill region of Nebraska is an ideal breeding place for 
waterfowl. It is, indeed, one of the very best of the remaining 
breeding grounds. The great number of marshy lakes, with their 
abundant supply of food, shelter, and breeding places, together 
with the relative absence of enemies, provide advantages which it 
would be difficult to surpass; and it would be interesting to know 
the exact conditions here before the advent of the white man. For 
various reasons the group of lakes in eastern Cherry County and the 
lakes of Garden and Morrill Counties are at present by far the 
most important from the standpoint of protection of ducks on their 
