The status of the scaup throughout Sas¬ 
katchewan is still unclear at the present 
time. Brood numbers are below usual suc¬ 
cess levels, but this can change within days 
if it is because of a late hatch rather than a 
general lack of success. Owing to nest lo¬ 
cation, this species would suffer most 
from rising water levels which were general 
during the nesting period in the districts 
where scaup breeding numbers were highest. 
WATERFOWL KILL SURVEY 
Data supplied by M, Edwin Rosasco 
Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife 
Scope and methods 
Each year, immediately after the 
hunting season, the Bureau of Sport 
Fisheries and Wildlife conducts a national 
mail questionnaire survey of waterfowl 
hunters designed to meet the following 
objectives: 
1. Estimate, at the flyway level, the 
total waterfowl bag by species (ad¬ 
justed for response bias) and the total 
crippling loss for ducks, geese, and 
coots. 
2. Estimate, at the State and flyway 
level, the total number of potential 
adult hunters, average number of days 
hunted and ducks and geese bagged per 
potential adult hunter, and total days 
hunted and ducks and geese bagged by 
all waterfowl hunters (adult and junior), 
unadjusted for response bias. 
3. Measure the percent change of each 
of these estimates from those of the 
previous year. 
The 1964-65 hunting season is the 13th 
consecutive year of the survey since its 
start in 1952. 
Since there is no complete listing of 
waterfowl hunters, this survey, by neces¬ 
sity, uses as its sampling universe those 
post offices throughout the nation which 
sell Migratory Bird Hunting Stamps 
("duck stamps"). This year, 2, 736 post 
offices were selected to cooperate in the 
survey as "sample outlets." These 
sample outlets were randomly selected, 
within States, from four strata (small, 
medium, large, and very large) of post 
offices, based on actual dollar sales of 
duck stamps. Geographic zoning within 
States was also used to insure a more 
even distribution of sample outlets 
throughout a State. 
The post office stratification system 
and geographic zoning of States used in 
1963 were employed again this year. The 
calculations themselves were based on 
potential adult waterfowl hunters rather 
than active adult waterfowl hunters. This 
change was made to simplify the calcu¬ 
lations and does not affect the estimates 
of kill. The 1963 means per hunter have 
been adjusted to this new base to provide 
the usual comparisons. Additional ad¬ 
justments were made in the Massachusetts 
totals due to corrected 1963 stamp sales 
based on reports received from the Post 
Office Department after the final 1963 
kill estimates were prepared. 
Data* from those portions of Colorado, 
Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming lying 
west of the Continental Divide were as¬ 
signed to the Pacific Flyway for both 1963 
and 1964. The Colorado waterfowl har¬ 
vest and activity figures in this report do 
not include that which took place during 
the experimental October season in the 
San Luis Valley. 
Estimates of the total kill and crip¬ 
pling losses for scoter, eider, and 
oldsquaw, which have a special season in 
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island, 
have been made for hunting seasons in 
30 
