78 
During May, care was taken to avoid bias in favor of the species most easily 
identified by refraining from the identification of birds except under conditions where 
all species could be identified. This was not done in July, particularly on the second 
run, due to the greater difficulty in identifying any broods. The fact that broods 
often occurred in groups led to the tendency to identify the easy ones, or the first 
ones spotted (usually mallards), and to throw the rest into the "unidentified broods" 
category. Thus itis quite probable that figure for the more conspicuous species are 
inflated. This is probably most true of the second run when the clustering of broods 
was most pronounced. For instance, the mallard makes up an increasing percentage 
of our recorded population as identification becomes more difficult. At the same 
time, the Shoveler, which is easily ignored (though not difficuli to identify) disappears 
from the records. 
The species composition of broods and potential later broods in Stratum B is 
shown in table XI. | 
Table XI. - Species Composition of the July Population, Stratum B, 1954 (Expressed 
as percent of the Total Population). 
Potential Later Broods 

Species Broods (25 Identified) (38 Identified) 
Pintail 5.23 
Mallard 64.0 39.4 
Baldpate 4,0 15.8 
Shoveler a 
Gadwall 9 
Blue -winged teal 28.0 1 9 
Canvasback 4.0 
Redhead Sige 
Ruddy duck 79 
Golden- eye 2.6 
Bufflehead 2.6 
Total 100% 100% 
Data for this stratum are few, as indicated by the column headings. However, 
it is clear that the mallard is the predominate species. 
Although production surveys in Stratum B may seem rather fruitless at this 
time, it is felt that, under drier conditions, the Stratum might have considerable 
numbers of waterfowl. From the standpoint of future comparisons, it would appear 
desirable to run surveys there, even at this time. 
