Relation Between Reference Areas of Banding and Harvest Areas 
The distribution of direct recoveries of mallards banded as 
locals from each 10-minute grid of banding to the degree block of 
recovery suggests a continuous cline in migration routes among 
various breeding areas. Thus, young mallards from western portions 
of the breeding range move southward into the Pacific Flyway. 
Further east they move either southwest to the Pacific Flyway or 
south and southeast to the Central and Mississippi Flyways in 
fairly constant proportions for a given area, but with a gradually 
increasing proportion going to the Mississippi Flyway as origin on 
the breeding range shifts eastward. 
In the discussion which follows, reference areas of banding 
have been grouped into eight categories. Each grouping and the 
respective reference areas found within are illustrated in figure 3. 
Northern Pacific group 
Direct recoveries from Alaska and British Columbia bandings 
indicated movement to or within the Pacific Flyway. The Alaska 
population appeared to be strongly migratory with movement to or 
along the Pacific coast, mostly terminating in southern British 
Columbia, Washington, or Oregon (table 25). British Columbia 
mallards had a recovery pattern almost identical to those from 
Alaska (table 25 and fig. 5). Bandings were lacking for Yukon, 
which was provisionally grouped with reference areas in Alaska 
and British Columbia on the basis of recoveries from bandings in 
Alaska and the District of Mackenzie. 
Western United States group 
The distribution of direct recoveries from bandings in all 
States of the Pacific Flyway which have breeding populations of 
mallards suggested that mallards produced in this region are 
essentially nonmigratory (figs. 6 and 7). Most recoveries were 
from within the State of banding, with the remainder randomly 
scattered from the banding station as permitted by available 
habitat. 
Western Interior Canada group 
Recoveries of bandings from the western border of Alberta 
through the western third of Saskatchewan and north to approximately 
55° latitude indicated a gradual shifting in their pattern of dis¬ 
tribution from a southwesterly direction to the Pacific coast to a 
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