for the different States, it was necessary to determine the length of 
the legal hunting day during various periods in the various States. 
The times of sunrise and sunset were computed for a central geographic 
location in each State from tables in The 1959 World Almanac and Book 
of Facts (H. Hansen, 1959). Each month of the season was divided into 
3 ten-day periods, and the times of sunrise and sunset were computed as 
accurately as possible for the middle of each of these periods. Thus, 
hours shown in the table were computed from times of sunrise and sunset 
at the approximate center of the State on or about the 5th, 15th, or 
25th of a month during the hunting season. The differences between 
these times and the actual times of sunrise and sunset in any specific 
locality could account for the small fraction of birds listed as having 
been killed either slightly before or after legal shooting hours. 
Because time of day was computed as the number of hours after 
sunrise or before sunset, a mid-period of variable length remained. 
Because the season started at noon on opening day (precluding the 
possibility of a morning kill), and because opening day differs in 
importance among the various States, some additional estimates were 
made that excluded opening day and these also are included in Table 13. 
The information in Table 13 shows that the greatest kill occurs 
in the first or second hour after sunrise. The rate in the afternoon 
usually was lower than in the early morning and was more evenly distri- 
buted. There was a tendency in most States for the kill during the 
hour before sunset to be lower than in the second hour before sunset. 
This result was not anticipated, for we had suspected that the rate 
of kill would be higher in the last hour before sunset because of 
greater activity of ducks then. There must have been a reduction in 
hunter effort just before sunset. 
Between two-thirds and three-quarters of the kill occurred between 
one hour after sunrise and one hour befare sunset. Exceptions occurred 
in Arkansas and Louisiana, where the kill was strongly concentrated 
early in the morning. This suggests that the further reduction of 
the hunting hours after sunrise or before sunset would not markedly 
affect the total kill in most States. In the 1960 Wing Collection 
we hope to obtain data to evaluate the importance of the kill during 
the half hour before sunrise. 
The data suggest that relatively more diving ducks than dabbling 
ducks were taken in the morning. The proportion of all species of 
ducks killed during the morning was considerably greater in the southern 
States of the Flyway than in the northern States. It seemed that this 
could have been a result of better hunting that permitted hunters to 
secure the daily bag limit earlier in some areas than in others. It 
seemed possible that if a hunter did not bag the limit, he would 
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