
69 
From Table VI. we find that most of the puddle ducks were below 
par in 1955 and all of the divers were above par. When grouped together the 
puddle ducks were down 35 percent while the divers were up 74 percent. The 
decrease in puddle ducks can be attributed to two possible causes: (1) poor 
production on the area in 1954, and (2) increase in puddle duck habitat on the 
Regina Plains area which is immediately adjacent to the study area. 
The increase in divers along with nearly a 1,000 percent increase in 
coots was very likely due to the spring drouth in the Dakotas which caused birds 
to move northward. 
By subtracting the remaining potential as of August, from the breeding 
pair counts in Table Il, and comparing them to the brood population in Table VI., 
the success of the breeding pairs (percent of successful females) can be 
approximated as follows: , 
Table VII. - Percent of Females Producing Broods. 

1952 1953 1954 1955 
Mallard 46.2 39.1 21.3 42.3 
B-w. Teal 46,3 42,0 23.3 36.4 
Pintail 29.7 37.9 6.9 18,2 
Baldpate 40.0 66.7 15.0 64.0 
G-w. Teal 46.7 19.3 13.3 20,0 
_ Ganvasback 39.1 86.4 30.4 100.0 
Others 26.2 50.0 33.3 71.0 
Averages 42.4 42.8 19.7 45.3 
Thus from Table VII. we find that although total brood production 
was 22 percent below par in 1955, the actual percentage of successful females 
was higher than any previous year according to our brood data. Nesting data 
did not indicate better success in 1955 than in 1953 (See Table IV.) but it must 
be remembered that this is "raw'' nesting success data and is not corrected for 
renesting attempts, 
However, for the fourth consecutive year raw nesting success data 
and broods produced per female have paraileled each other quite closely. 
