The number of questionnaires mailed out and the number returned 
in the Pacific Flyway are shown in the following table: 
No. of Hunters 


Receiving No. of Hunters Percent 
uestionnaires -_Respondin Respondin 
1958-59 1957-58 1958-59 (1957-58 1958-59 1957-58 
11,756 6,634 8,396 4,743 71.4 71.5 

Fortunately, the fire loss of survey records from Arizona and 
Nevada is not important with respect to the effect upon the estimate 
for the flyway, since the proportion of hunters in these states was only 
5.3 percent of the hunters in the flyway during the 1958-59 season. The 
minor fire loss of records in California, Idaho, Oregon and Utah did not 
introduce bias errors in the samples and it is believed that the data 
used in preparing this report is representative of about 94.7 percent of 
the hunters in the flyway. 
Experience has shown that mail-questionnaire data from hunters 
contain both sampling errors and response-bias errors. Hunters tend to 
exaggerate when reporting their kill which results in an inflated esti- 
mate. These response errors are not consistent in size from one area to 
another or from one year to the next in the same area. Also, they are 
large as compared to sampling error and their presence seriously limits 
the usefulness of the survey data unless they are removed.1 
. Methods for removing response-bias errors have been developed 
and kill data presented in this report have been adjusted in accordance 
therewith. 
le. L. Atwood, Validity of Mail Survey Data on Bagged Waterfowl, 
Journal of Wildlife Management, Vol. XX, No. 1, pages 1 through 16, 
2E. OL. Atwood, A Procedure for Removing the effect of Response Bias 
_Errors from Waterfowl Questionnaire Responses, Biometrics, 
Vol. XIV, No. 1, March 1, 1958. 
are 
