
often hunt in areas where field-feeding mallards are most apt 
to be taken. This type of hunting is often more convenient 
and requires less effort and less equipment. This indicates 
that hunters are willing to spend more time afield even though 
their time is not as productive per hour as is the case on the 
Upper Mississippi Refuge. 
There is a tremendous difference in hourly success rate, 
too, with the Upper Mississippi requiring an average of 3.98 
hours of hunting for each duck bagged; Louisa 4.44 hours; 
Keithsburg 5.72 hours; Gardner 7.35 hours; Batchtown 4.98 hours; 
Calhoun 6.37 hours; and the entire area averaging 4.95 hours of 
hunting for each duck brought to bag. On the Upper Mississippi 
Refuge, in 1949, the very low figure of 2.69 hours per duck was 
found. Again, the type of hunter, the type of hunting, and 
hunter selectivity may be factors in the variation between the 
areas. 
A summary of comparative hourly success for all areas is 
shown in tables 19 and 20. 
Species composition of bag 
With mallards comprising the bulk of the flight through 
this area, it is not surprising to find that this species 
dominates the bag. On the Upper Mississippi Refuge, for example, 
mallards made up 37.60% of the total duck use, yet constituted 
40.30% of the average bag. For the area as a whole, mallards 
comprised 72.40% of the total use and 62.90% of the checked kill. 
™ Blue-winged teal, on the other hand, made up only 8.39% of 
the total average fall use on the Upper Mississippi yet accounted 
for 18.14% of the checked kill. On the same area, wood ducks 
accounted for 4.13% of fall use but 7.46% of the checked kill. 
This is all the more surprising when one considers the number of 
years during which this species has been given complete or partial 
protection. 
Scaup, on the other hand, accounted for 12.88% of average fall 
use on the Upper Mississippi but only 3.02% of the checked kill. 
It would appear that for most species the relation between 
use and harvest is about what could be expected. The dispropor- 
tionately high incidence in the bags of such species as. blue- 
winged teal and wood ducks suggests that these species may be more 
vulnerable to the gun than some others. Records also indicate 
that the bulk of the kill of these ducks occurs within the first 
week of the hunting season with as much as 89% of opening day 
kill being blue-winged teal and about 80% of the total fall har- 
vest being concentrated on the opening day. To a more limited 
degree, the same holds true with wood ducks. 
31 
