ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
This report is possible because of the efforts of the many 
banders who have done the major share of the work involved. Hunters, 
too, have played an important part, for the data used are based on 
recoveries reported by thousands of sportsmen throughout the United 
States and Canada. 
The author is especially indebted to C. S. Williams, 
Walter F. Crissey, and Earl Atwood. They have taken an active inter— 
est in the organization and analysis of the data. Appreciation is 
extended to Dr. Ludlow Griseom, Dr. Paul A. White, Dr. Oliver Austin, 
Jr., David A. Aylward, Howard L. Mendall, J. A. Hagar, Robert Johnson, 
L. G@. MacNamara, and C. B. Belt, for reviewing the manuseript and 
offering many suggestions. The author is particularly grateful to 
Frances Williams of the Boston Regional Office for her assistance in 
eompiling data and in typing various drafts of the manuseript. 
INTRODUCTION 
This paper brings together the results of black-duek banding 
throughout North America, and attempts to show, for the benefit of 
sportemen and administrator alike, where the birds of Barnegat Bay, 
St. Clair Flats, or any other important hunting area come from. The 
banding may shed some light also on the questions when do the various 
groups of birds move and when might they be expected to arrive from 
certain regions to the north under conditions existing today. 
The black duck, Anas rubripes, so closely related to the 
mallard and yet in many ways so different, is restricted largely to 
the territory east of the Mississippi in the United States and from 
Ontario eastward in Canada. Apparently the range of the black duck 
was at one time more restricted with fewer birds along the Mississippi 
River. About 60 years ago the black began to extend its range westward 
(Griscom 1949). Today there are reports of broods in North Dakota 
(Hammond 1950), and of a few flying birds in Montana (Griffith 1947), 
and in Alberta and Saskatchewan (Wright 1947) during late summer. It 
has become a frequent migrant in states bordering the Mississippi River 
on the west, from North Dakota to Texas, amd now occurs rather frequently 
in Manitoba in the late summer and fall. According to 1951 hunter bag 
cheeks, the species made up about 3 pereent of the bag of waterfowl] in 
the Mississippi Flyway and about 24 percent of the bag in the Atlantie 
Flyway (Crissey 1951). In reeent midwinter inventories, the blacks 
made up nearly 4 percent of the Mississippi Flyway population and 
almost 12 percent of the Atlantic Flyway population. From the contin- 
ental standpoint the black duck is but a small part (roughly 3 pereent) 
ry [a 
