substantiated by the almost complete lack of 
forest fires in either Manitoba or Saskatche- 
wan, The other parts of Manitoba continued 
to be good. Excessive water may have 
caused some nest loss east of Lynn Lake in 
northern Manitoba. Last year The Pas 
region burned continuously during the entire 
summer. Ontario water levels, which were 
very high in May, were reduced to what ap- 
peared to be a normal summer state. How- 
ever, this was not true in the southern parts 
of the Province where a lack of moisture 
had created a semi-drought condition. 
Breeding Population Indexes 
Survey results are shown intables E-26 and 
E-27 (pp. 124 and 125), An overall population 
decrease of 15 percent from 1962 is indicated. 
This is due mainly to the substantial de- 
crease of 43 percent in Ontario. The only 
other region showing a decrease was Man- 
itoba, The remaining three regions, the 
Saskatchewan River Delta and Saskatchewan, 
both North and south of 55° 30' N., suggested 
slight increases or a static condition. 
The surprising revelation is that all spe- 
cies of ducks were down, including the usual-~ 
ly numerous scaup, ringnecks, and mer- 
gansers, A possible solution is that due to a 
fairly early breakup, the birds were further 
north, 
The coot population made good gains in 
the Saskatchewan River Delta and Saskatche- 
wan (south of 55° 30' N.) areas which are the 
only places they were observed. 
Canada geese were down in all survey 
areas except Ontario. 
Production Indexes 
Survey data are shown in tables F-31 and 
F-32 (pp. 152 and 153), The total duckling in- 
dex continued to gravitate upward. The 
481,489 represents a 22,3 percent change 
from 1962, and isthe highest since 1955, Com- 
parable data previous to 1955arenot available 
at this time. The late nesting index, gathered 
within an observing radius of one-sixteenth 
of a, mile, indicated a moderate change of 
10.5 percent, though it continues to remain 
high when compared with years prior to 1962 
40 
when a radius of one-eighth of a mile was 
used, 
Ontario data indicates a 25.6 percent de- 
crease in the number of ducklings and a 
23.8 percent increase in LNI. Conversely, 
Manitoba D-1 and D-2 (Saskatchewan River 
Delta) and Saskatchewan, south of 55° 30! 
latitude, show an increase in the number of 
ducklings and a substantial decrease in the 
LNI, All areas except Ontario had an in- 
crease in the number of ducklings. 
Data in table F-32 (p. 153), whichisa com- 
parison of brood classification information, 
indicate that results of the first nesting at- 
tempt were excellent. A total of 88 percent 
of the broods observed were in class II and 
III; this is the highest recorded for this 
survey area, 
Data from the survey indicate that the 
large number of ducklings is because of the 
6.35 average size of class II and III broods 
rather than to a large number of broods. 
Actually there was a reduction of 890 class 
TI and III broods from 1962, The average 
size of class II and III Canada geese broods 
dropped considerably in 1963, though the num-~ 
ber of broods showed only a moderate de- 
crease, 
While the tables in this report deal ex- 
clusively with ducks and geese, it is appropri- 
ate that coot be mentioned also, This species 
was observed only on Saskatchewan #1 and 
Manitoba D-1 and D-2, The 1963 breeding 
population survey in May-June. indicated a 
marked increase from 6,147 to 18,109 birds. 
However, the number of broods observed was 
low. These data, along with the small size 
of the young observed, indicate that the 
broods were just beginning to hatch at the 
time of the survey. 
Conclusion 
The data obtained on the survey indicate 
that while marginal habitat conditions con- 
tinue to exist in the prairie regions, produc- 
tion in the north-central area remains the 
same. The number of estimated broods in 
1963 (51,040) was almost identical to 1962 
(51,930). However, the larger averageclass 
II and III brood size in 1963 (6.35) as com- 
pared to 1962 (4.84) suggests a moderate 
increase in the fall flight from this region, 
