218 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
INTRODUCTION 
In connection with a study of the game birds of California now being 
made by Dr. Joseph Grinnell and the writer under the auspices of the Uni- 
versity of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, the opportunity was 
taken the past spring to investigate the more important breeding grounds 
of ducks within the state of California. The purpose of the undertaking 
was to determine the kinds and numbers of ducks and certain 
other native game birds nesting within the state and also to obtain 
all iDossible knowledge as to the present conditions under which 
they breed. The limited amount of information upon record as to past condi- 
tions shows the importance of securing definite data concerning conditions as 
they are right now. That this information may be available as needed in 
the future has been the prime incentive in this work. 
The writer and his assistant, Mr. John N. Kendall, left the Museum on 
May 11, 1914, for Los Banos, Merced County. Here we stayed till May 24 when 
Fig. 62. Wheke Ducks nest; near Los Banos, Merced County, Cali- 
fornia; May 18, 1914. 
we moved to Live Oak, Sutter County, and spent the 25th near there on the 
grounds of the Noyes Gun Club. The next three days we studied conditions in 
the vicinity of the Gridley Gun Club across the line in Butte County. May 29 
we left for the Klamath region, arriving at Klamath Falls, Oregon, the same 
night. The marshes along Link River were investigated on May 30. From 
here we staged to Merrill, Oregon, and camped the following three days on 
Colwell’s ranch at the mouth of Lost River. On the third of June we moved 
camp to White Lake, a former town-site about three-quarters of a mile nortJi 
of the California-Oregon line. On June 6 we drove twenty-tivo miles around 
the south end of Lower Klamath Lake to the mouth of Willow Creek near 
Brownell, Siskiyou County, California. Here we camped until leaving for 
home on June 10. 
