continue to hunt later into the day. To test this idea, the 
number of hunter-days on which the various size bags were obtained 
was extracted from the 1959-60 Mail Questionnaire Survey from 
Minnesota, Michigan and Arkansas (Table 15). No ducks were 
reported killed on approximately half of the total hunter-days in 
each Statee The lowest proportion of unsuccessful days, 44 per cent, 
occurred in Minnesota, and the highest, 62 per cent, occurred in 
Michigan. In Minnesota, where the bag limit was three ducks, hunters 
reported that on 24.5 per cent of the days hunted they shot their 
limits as compared to 7.0 per cent in Michigan and 15.6 per cent in 
Arkansas. Percentages of the kill during the 4 hours before sunset 
were 31.6 in Minnesota, 35.5 in Michigan, and 12.2 in Arkansas, with 
no correlation with success. This suggests that high success is riot 
likely the only reason the duck kill was more concentrated in the 
morning in some States than in others. 
SPECIES COMPOSITION 
The Mississippi Flyway as a Whole 
The mallard was by far the most abundant species in the kill. 
Mallard kills comprised 46.6 per cent of the weighted Flyway total 
(Table 16). The lesser scaup was next most abundante The scaup 
kill, however, was only one-fifth that of the mallard. The next 
most numerous species in the bag were, in order: the green-winged 
teal, blue-winged teal, ring-necked duck, black duck, American 
widgeon, wood duck, and pintail. The remaining 14 species made up 
only 11.2 per cent of the kill. Canvasback, redhead, and ruddy duck, 
the species with a special combined daily bag limit of one, made up 
only 201 per cent of the total kill. 
Abundance of Certain Species In The Kill In Various Areas 
The mallard was the commonest species in the kill in every 
State in the Flyway except Alabama (only 78 wings, one of the 
smaller samples). The mallard kill varied from 18.3 per cent of 
the total kill in Michigan to 91.5 per cent in Arkansas. 
Blue-winged teal were numerous in the kill in the north only 
in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where the season opened 
earliest; and in the south only in Louisiana, where some bluewings 
winteTYo 
Black ducks made a progressively larger component of the kill 
from west to east across the Flyway. They were much more abundant 
in northern parts of the Flyway, but the west to east increase also 
could be seen in the Gulf States. 
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