45 
The broods from pairs that originally held territories on these larger areas also 
moved freely about them, back and forth across the transect line. Adequate 
records could not be kept of the pairs out of the transect with the result that 
brood-to-pair comparisons had to be made for birds noted within the eighth-mile 
strip at the time of the coverage. 
Broods averaged aA ducklings each. Class I, June broods for pintail and 
mallard averaged 7.4 (93 broods) and 7.9 (23 broods) respectively; with samples 
of only 10 and 25 broods, the July averages for Class I were 5.7 and 6.2 respectively; 
indicative of second attempts. 
Ground-to-Air Comparisons: Three coverages were made of the transect by 
John Lynch, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, assisted by Bill Hyska of the 
Provincial Game Branch and Floyd Thompson of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 
The results of these coverages are presented in Tables I andIV. 
For the over-all breeding pair density, the air crew recorded 57 percent of 
the ground figure. In species composition there was a definite bias in favour of 
pintails and against both species of teal. This is partly reflected in the "percent 
drake" section where that for pintails by air is much higher than the ground figure, 
as is the over-all figure - 87.5 percent compared to 73.5 percent. 
With regard to brood density the two coverages yielded 40 and 42 percent of 
the ground figure. The very small samples probably do not justify the comparison 
of species composition or age classification. Eighty percent of the actual and 
potential broods were identified in the June 27 coverage; this figure was 38 percent 
for the July round. Of the first count broods actually seen made up 83 percent; 
they composed only 52 percent of the second survey. 
Relation to Remainder of Soil Zone: The transect as it now stands could not be 
considered typical of much of the Brown soil zone. The soils are above average 
in moisture efficiency and the transect contains little rolling and no hilly topography 
-- with characteristically smaller, deeper sloughs in higher densities. The 
difficulty of working it on a transect basis with such large water areas has already 
been mentioned. It is felt some revision will be necessary for 1953. 
Summary of Banding Operations 
The banding of flightless young on the study area was carried out by 
Floyd Thompson and his crew and by the writer with help from Bob Caldwell, 
Don Reid and members of the banding crew. Floyd Thompson carried out three 
drives which yielded 320 young and the writer, working all possible sloughs on the 
transect, caught 379, using fish-landing nets. A tabulation of the catch is presented 
in Table IV. | 
An additional 8, 081 birds were banded in the Kerrobert district, 30 miles 
north of Kindersley. 
