Sept, 1914 
SURVEY OF BREEDING GROUNDS OF DUCKS 
219 
We were thus enabled to visit three of the best known breeding grounds of 
ducks in the state: the vicinity of Los Banos, in the San Joaquin Valley; the 
vicinity of Gridley, in the Sacramento Valley; and the famed breeding grounds 
of the Klamath Lake region. 
LOS BANOS, MERCED COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 
Our stay at Los Banos covered a period of nearly two weeks, May 11 to 
May 24. We were quartered at the club house of the Los Banos Gun Club sit- 
uated at Gadwall, six miles southeast of Los Banos. Here we were in the heart 
of the best duck country and found conditions favorable to our work. 
Practically all of the land in the vicinity of Los Baiios is owned by the 
Miller and Lux Company. By taking water from the San Joaquin River near 
Mendota and carrying it northward along the hills in two large canals this 
company has brought large areas of land under irrigation. All of the sections 
of land which are at all level have been enclosed in levees and are successively 
flooded so as to cause a continual growth of grass on which cattle are pas- 
tured. About 150,000 head of cattle are pastured on this “swamped land” in 
the vicinity of Los Banos. The water in flooded fields varies from a few inches 
to about four feet deep. In the shallower places sedge {Carex sp.), rushes 
(Junctis sp.), and salt grass {Distichlis spicata) spring up, whereas tules (bul- 
rushes and cattails) grow in the deeper parts. The commonest aquatic plant is 
the yellow water-weed {Jussiaea calif ornica). The higher portions of land which 
cannot be flooded are covered with Kern greasewood {Spirostachys occidenta- 
lis). A few sloughs lined with tules carry the surplus water off towards the 
river. 
We find, therefore, that these breeding grounds for ducks and other birds 
have been made available through the efforts of man to produce pasturage for 
cattle. The country is especially well suited to those ducks which choose small 
sedge-covered islets (see fig. 62) or dense clumps of tules in which to nest. 
For many years this region has been known as the best of the duck breed- 
ing grounds in the state, as well as the best of the loafing grounds for water- 
fowl during the winter. This has been the region where market hunters have 
most persistently operated. Its distance from the larger cities has alone pre- 
vented its more wide use for gun club preserves. It has also long been the 
Mecca of those ornithologists and oologists who were most interested in water- 
fowl. In spite of the activities of such men, however, little has been written 
as to the results obtained. The best account of the ornithology of this re- 
gion yet published is to be found in P. M. Chapman’s “Camps and Cruises of an 
Ornithologist” in which an altogether too brief chapter is devoted to “The San 
Joaquin Valley at Los Banos”. This one account affords information as to 
previous conditions (in 1903) in this locality. 
Anas playtyrhynchos. Mallard. We personally saw but a very few Mal- 
lards in the vicinity of Los Banos, though we were told that the species nests 
in some numbers along the larger sloughs near the river. We discovered no 
nests, but succeeded in finding two broods of young. On May 12 while cross- 
ing a foot bridge across a slough I frightened from a nearby clump of tules a 
female Mallard with a brood of half-grown young. Some of these dove, while 
others flopped along the surface of the water. This brood was thought to be at 
least two weeks old and the eggs must therefore have been laid about the first 
week in April. A day or two later what was probably part of the same brood 
was seen in the same locality. On May 18 a female Mallard with a brood of 
about ten downy young, seven or eight inches long, was noted scurrying across 
