
Breeding Population Indices - 
The preliminary survey conducted between May 3 and May 16 on three 
transects totaling 47 miles, indicated that the adult male wood duck population 
was about 8 percent lower and the adult female population about 34 percent 
lower than the 1952-53 averages for the same transects. 
Production Indices - 
Nine river transects, totaling 143 miles, floated this year were the 
same as those in the 1954 survey. Equipment and methods were also the same. 
An all-time low of 56 broods, for an average of 39.2 broods per 100 miles, 
was observed this year. The total number of broods in 1955 was 37 percent 
below the figure for 1954 and 40 Hemant below the average for the previous three 
years (Table l). 
With only two wood duck broods observed on the preliminary survey, 
and from the distribution of age classes (Table 1) it may be concluded that the 
transects were inventoried during the period when a maximum number of broods 
could have been observed. 
During the 1955 survey whole counts were obtained on 32 wood duck 
broods. The range in whole brood size ran from two to 14, and the average 
size was 8.6 young per brood. Brood size in 1955 was 0.8 young above the 
previous four-year average. 
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