eastern New England (bypassing Cape Cod) on their way to southern waters. 
With the direct recoveries (44) from birds banded before the hunting 
season, 27 percent were reported from the southern coastal area from 
New Jersey to North Carolina. (With Long Island included the percent 
would be 32). In this group of birds the local kill amounts to 57 per- 
cent of the total recoveries. Incidentally, practically all recoveries 
from birds banded during the shooting season at inland points were taken 
near the site of banding. The fact that no recoveries were taken on the 
coastal marshes of Massachusetts further illustrates that this population 
was moving predominantly in a south-southwesterly direction toward the 
Middle Atlantic area. 
Seventy-one recoveries in subsequent years show somewhat the 
same pattern except, of course, that the States and Provinces to the 
north are represented giving a more complete story on the performance 
of the population. Approximately 13 percent were recovered from the 
_ Maritime Provinces and Quebec, 26 percent in New England (not counting 
the local kill which amounted to 41 percent) and 20 percent in the 
south from Long Island to North Carolina. 
We have given a detailed account of the banding results in 
Massachusetts because the problems in this State are similar to the 
problems elsewhere, though not in the same proportion, and also because 
much of the past and current sentiment regarding special shooting reg- 
ulations for New England originated in Massachusetts. Proponents of 
special shooting regulations for New England have set forth as part of 
their argument that the black duck is the only important game duck in 
that section of the country, and that since the northeastern black does 
not appear to migrate to any extent south of New England or Long Island, 
special consideration should be accorded New England (Cross 1951, Hagar 
1950). If this is so, then the wintering populations along the coasts 
of New England, the Maritime Provinces, and Newfoundland, plus the hunt- 
ing kill represent most of the production of Eastern Quebec, Labrador, 
Newfoundland, the Maritime Provinces and New England. The midwinter 
waterfowl survey data, collected by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the 
State Game Departments, and private cooperators, during January when 
population movements are at a minimum, may furnish additional informa- 
tion of interest on this problem. 
The following tabulation by regions gives the average winter 
population in the eastern coastal states for the 10-year period 1943 
to 1952. Excluded is West Virginia. 
The population for the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland 
has been derived by averaging the available mid-winter inventories 
which cover the periods 1948 to 1952 for the former and 1950 to 1952 
for the latter. 
=T5= 
