some were reported from all States except Ohio and Arkansas. This 
suggests that the immatures begin their southward migration very soon, 
after they are capable of flight. Smart (J. Wildl. Mgmt., 29(3): 
533-536) has shown that late hatched redheads are capable of short 
flights when they have as few as six primaries that are clear and hard 
and that the tenth primary is clear and hard approximately 2 weeks 
later. Thus, the teal with soft primaries had probably been capable 
of flight little longer than 2 weeks. 
Unretrieved Hunting Kill or Crippling Loss 
Data on ducks shot but not retrieved during the September experi¬ 
mental teal season were available from both the mail questionnaire and 
the hunter performance surveys. These data are presented in table 13 
as rates of crippling loss (birds lost per bird bagged). The data from 
the mail questionnaire survey represent all ducks^ and, as mentioned 
earlier in this report, some of these birds were not teal. Data from 
the hunter performance survey were for teal only and we used observations 
on hunters who were aware they were being watched as well as those on 
hunters who did not know they were being observed. 
Rates of crippling loss from the mail questionnaire survey suggest 
that 0.19 ducks were lost for each one bagged during the experimental 
September season. Flyway rates of crippling loss were 0.17 and 0.20 
ducks lost per duck bagged in the Central and Mississippi Flyways, 
respectively. Crippling loss rates varied considerably among States; 
some of this variation is undoubtedly real, but a part may be due to 
sampling error especially in States where few birds were taken. 
Data on crippling loss from the hunter performance survey were 
adequate from only about one-half of the States. Among these States 
crippling loss rates varied considerably as they did when calculated 
from mail questionnaire survey data. Generally, the data from the 
hunter performance survey suggest a slightly higher crippling loss than 
the data from the mail questionnaire survey but still about one bird 
lost for every five bagged. 
Total Hunting Kill of Teals 
The total hunting kill of teal, all deaths caused by hunting, 
included both retrieved kill (harvest) and unretrieved kill (cripples' 
and was determined by adding an estimated number of cripples to the 
harvest. To estimate the numbers of cripples, we used crippling loss 
rates determined from the mail questionnaire survey because numbers 
of hunter performance observations were inadequate for several States. 
However, We concluded that our estimates were minimal because the 
observed crippling loss from States where there were adequate numbers 
of observations tended to be higher than that reported on the mail 
13 
