199 
Canvasback made a substantial gain as did the ruddy duck. In the case of the 
latter species it indicated that all of the breeding pairs had not migrated this far 
north at the time of the breeding pair census. The mallard apparently had a good 
nesting season and production was up slightly although breeding pairs were about 
the same aS a year ago. 
Although no record is kept of coot broods due to the difficulty in identifying a 
brood, nevertheless it was obvious that ‘the coot population was definitely high and 
probably close to a "peak" for this area, 
Summary of Data for North and South Dakota 
The following table shows the relative abundance of waterfowl in the Dakotas 
for the 6-year period 1948 through 1953. 
Table VI. - Relative Abundance of Ducks in the Dakotas for the 6-Year Period 
(Breeding Pairs per Square Mile on 225 Square Miles of Ground Transects) 


Species 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 
Blue-winged teal tel 8.8 12.6 9.3 9.5 9.2 
Pintail 4.9 6.0 9.4 6.5 7.2 5.2 
Mallard 1 4.7 5.4 3.8 4.5 3.9 
Gadwall 2.3 2.8 2.9 2.4 a5 2.6 
Shoveler 2.0 1.9 2a z.1 14 1.4 
Redhead 0.8 0.9 1,0 0.9 bel 1.0 
Ruddy duck 0.7 0.8 1,0 0.6 0.6 0.1 
Canvasback 0.3 0.4 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.6 
Lesser scaup 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.7 0.6 
All Others 0.3 . 0.6 0.8 0.4 0.5 0.5 
Total ; 22.3 ae ae 36.9 27.1 28.8 25.1 
Water Areas per 
Square Mile 9.7 8.1 12.8 11.3 12.6 12.6 
The average of 25,1 pairs per square mile is about 2 pairs below "par" for 
the transects involved, par being about 27 pairs per square mile, 
Pintail, mallard and ruddy duck showed the only significant decreases in 1953 
and as said before this was not a true decrease for the ruddy but was caused by a 
late migration which occurred after the breeding pair census was made, The 
abundance of ruddy broods in South Dakota confirmed this fact. 
Brood averages for the period 1949 through 1953 are summarized as follows: 
