
these points were not representative of birds which nested or were 
raised in the vicinity. Since the problem was one of determining 
the distribution of the populations measured by the breeding-ground 
survey within each stratun, there was strong doubt whether banding 
at concentration points was providing the necessary information. 
Beginning in 195, therefore, the emphasis was shifted to the 
banding of ducklings before they reached the flying stage, and bani-~ 
ing of brood females. Although greater effort was required to catch 
this class of bird, there was no question that the birds were repre-~ 
sentative of the area in which they were banded, 
Other difficulties experienced through the years have been 
inconsistencies in aging and sexing birds, and the manner in which age 
data have been recorded. Cloacal examination was not generally 
used during the early years for aging and sexing the birds. 
The terminology for ages was vague and loosely applied. Parti- 
cularly confusing was the designation "juvenal." It was applied to 
young birds of the year, both before they were on the wing and long 
afterwards. To clarify this, the terminology was changed and made 
more definite in 1949. The term 'tlocal" was applied to young birds, 
banded before they could fly, which could safely be presumed to be 
still in the immediate vicinity of their nests. The term "immature" 
was applied to all other birds banded during the year in which they 
were hatched, To birds banded on or after the first of the year 
and recognizable as hatched during the preceding calendar year, the 
term "subadult" was applied. 
Although these terms were precise and ideally suited for the 
mumeric coding system (IBM) of the Banding Office, waterfowl banders 
were slow in adopting them. The designation "local" was not con= 
sistently used by all banders in the three Provinces until 195h. 
Since the banding of "locals" was first emphasized in 195, and 
since there is some confusion among the records prior to 195 ree 
garding age designation of the birds, major emphasis in this report 
is given to bandings and recoveries during the period 195) through 
1956. Among the records in the files for the period prior to 195k, 
there are some instances where it is obvious that either the term 
"local" or the term "juvenal" had been applied to ducklings before 
they reached the flying stage. Records of this type have been in- 
cluded with the summaries of recoveries of "locals" from 195) and 
1955 bandings. It should be mentioned that the task of transfer- 
ring hunter reports of bands recovered to IBM cards is a lengthy 
one and that data from the 1956=57 hunting season were not avail- 
able at the time this report was written. i 
