DECREASE OF WATEBFOWL. 1 1 
tion of waterfowl. Since L885, however, the problem of duck 
preservation in North America bas entirely changed. The prairie 
districts of central Canada, comprising large portions of Manitoba. 
Saskatchewan, and Alberta are the "ducks' paradise." Within the 
United States this favored region extends to the northeastern pari of 
Montana, the northern half of North Dakota, and the northwestern 
corner of Minnesota. The whole vast region IS crowded with lakes, 
ponds, sloughs, and marshes that furnish ideal nesting conditions and 
unlimited food. Forty years ago every available nook was crowded 
with waterfowl, and the whole region, 200 miles wide by 400 miles 
in length, was a great breeding colony, and numbered its inhabitants 
by the hundreds of thousands. To the northward the forests formed 
a partial boundary: to the southward, the general absence of suitable; 
bre< ding grounds was the controlling factor, restricting the breeding 
waterfowl to the few lakes and marshes. The number of breeding 
ducks decreased rapidly from central North Dakota southward, until 
the outposts were reached in the lake region of southern Wisconsin, 
the Kankakee marshes of Illinois and Indiana, a few favored spoN in 
southwestern Minnesota, and the lakes of north-central Iowa. In 
southern Wisconsin in L864-, every pond hole and every damp depres- 
sion had its brood of young ducks. During the next fifteen years the 
farming of the region changed from grain raising to dairying, the 
marshes were drained, the former duck nurseries became grazing 
grounds, and duck hunting there was a sport of the past. 
An article written in 1877 on the birds of northeastern Illinois 
enumerates L2 species of ducks as breeding commonly in the vicinity 
and 3 others as occasionally found there in summer. At present, a 
brood of young ducks in this region is rare. In L885 some 1-i species 
bred near Clear Lake. Iowa, and L6 species at Heron Lake, Minnesota. 
Now scarcely any ducks breed at either lake. But the places just 
mentioned were merely the outskirts of the " ducks' paradise." As 
great a change has taken place in the very heart of the breeding 
grounds. The Northern Pacific Railroad cut across its southern border 
in Minnesota and North Dakota and this was soon followed by a north 
and south line to Winnipeg. Other shorter branches were built later, 
but the final doom of the ducks was apparent when the Canadian Pacific 
Railroad crossed between Winnipeg and the Rocky Mountains the 
finest duck breeding grounds on the continent. During the past 
decade, the last stronghold of the waterfowl has been invaded, and 
soon the great breeding colonies of northern Alberta and Saskatchewan 
will be of the past. The population of North Dakota Increased many 
fold from 1880 to L900, and during this same period the vast prairies 
of central Canada were changed to wheat lields. It is evident, there- 
fore, that in the United States and southern Canada in a few years 
there will be no great breeding colonies of the ducks most valued for 
