
150 
during the June visits and three times during the May studies. The results obtained, 
therefore, are not so much the actual population of the sample area in question as 
an index of the fluctuations of the numbers recorded under similar conditions over 
an extended period during the breeding season. 
In the accompanying tables 5/2 means five pairs, two singels and an appre- 
pate of seven birds in grmps of three or more. No young birds are recorded. The 
data are recorded in tables I = III. 
The Comparative Ground Density Table (Table [V) suggests the fluctuations 
in density that may occur at different periods of the spring as the season advances. 
However, if data derived from smaller samples in previous years can be considered 
comparable, itis clear that there are substantial increases in the breeding population 
of black ducks and Canada geese within the study area this year. 
The first geese hatched in the Swift Current area this year on May 24 when 
an entire clutch of six walked off the nest. During the next week all six pairs under 
direct observation led off their young successfully. No loss of young geese up to 
June 18 was noted. Two broods were banded on June 16. Young black ducks weré 
not observed until June 1, when a special drive brought out five broods varying in 
age from 24 hours to about two weeks. Before this date, a few very young black 
ducks were found dead but unmarked among the sedges. These may have pone 
astray and perished from exposure. The entire period during which the gramd survey 
was carried out was consistently cold and wet. 
On June 21, a bright, sunny day, aerial transects were made of a more 
extensive area in the Swift Current region. Fifteen transects 20 miles in length were 
run in the form of a grid over a 400 square mile section of the zone which included 
our study area as afocal point. These transects were approximately three miles 
apart and no counts were made on the turns. The aircraft maintained a ground speed 
of 100 mph. and a height of 150 feet; observations were made from one side only and 
covered a calculated 1/8 of a mile strip. Eliminating duplication, occurring at 
intersection on our grid, the actual area so censused is equivalent to 30 square miles. 
Because of height, speed and the latenss of season, the statistics obtained on 
ducks on this aerial transect cannot mean much. Most of the ducks recorded were 
but a movement by the side of inside reed beds. Many, undoubtedly, were:overlooked. 
On othe other hand, geese, being in the open, were easy to "pick up" and therefore 
Table V is considered to give a fairly accurate picture of the geese in this area. All 
of the geese recorded on this flight were feeding or resting in shallow ponds, and not 
a single bird flushed during the survey. This might be an indication of an early 
moult by the non-breeders or it might indicate that the peese here are being conditioned 
to aircraft which they must experience nearly every day. 
