INTRODUCTION 
Administrators who formulate the annual waterfowl hunting 
regulations are guided largely in their decisions by the results of three 
extensive surveys: (1) a nation-wide hunting season kill survey, (2) 
a continental wintering population survey, and (3) a breeding population - 
production survey carried on from Alaska south through the Canadian 
Provinces and thé notthern States, This report aims to bring together 
in one place pertinent information from these surveys for use in ime 
drafting of the 1953-54 regulations, 
Because of the wide distribution of waterfowl and their migratory 
nature, no one section of their range can supply all the information needed, 
The surveys must be on a very broad basis, and therefore, the most 
efficient approach is a cooperative one in which State, Provincial, Federal 
and private conservation agencies pool their manpower and equipment, 
This approach is the one which has been taken in recent years; and thus the 
information in this report is not due to the activity of any one agency, but 
rather results from many agencies working together. 
Since the hunting regulations are now set on the basis of four major 
flyways, the results of the three surveys have been organized by flyways, 
In the case of hunting kill sufvey, the kill information is for the United 
States only. The wintering and breeding surveys, however, are broader 
in scope and include areas outside the limits of the United States, The 
findings in these outside sections have been assigned to one or more of 
the major flyways based on indications from banding returns, Thus, for 
winter surveys, Alaska, British Columbia and western Mexico have been 
considered with Pacific Flyway States; eastern Mexico, with the Central 
Flyway; and the Maritime Provinces and the West Indies with Atlantic 
Flyway States, Similarly, in interpreting data from the breeding grounds, 
it has been assumed that birds from Alaska, Northwest Territories, 
British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana, are important to 
Pacific Flyway hunters; that those areas, excepting British Columbia and 
Alaska, contribute materially to the Central Flyway populations; that 
northern Alberta, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and 
western Quebec influence flights into the Mississippi Flyway; and that 
the Far North, and Canada from Saskatchewan to Newfoundland supply 
waterfowl to the Atlantic Flyway. 
There is an urgent need for banding operations and research to 
define more clearly the flights of waterfowl to and from various breeding 
sections of Canada, Thus, future banding studies may show the present 
assumptions of distribution and migration somewhat in error and, if so, 
corrections then will be in order, 
