32 
MISSOURI 
Data supplied by R. W. Vaught, 
Missouri Conservation Commission 
BREEDING POPULATION AND 
PRODUCTION INDEXES 
The results of the breeding population 
and production surveys conducted in 
Missouri are presented in _ table 
F-36 (p. 122). 
CONCLUSIONS 
There will be an increase in the fall 
flight of ducks from Missouri over that 
of 1960. 
ATLANTIC FLYWAY 
WATERFOWL 
An estimated 809,159 ducks were re- 
trieved in the Atlantic Flyway during the 
1960-61 waterfowl season (table A-9, 
P- 50), with an additional 181,606 killed 
but not retrieved. These totals represent 
respective increases of 19 percent and 
13 percent from the previous season. The 
total kill of 990,765 ducks approximates 
an 18-percent increase. 
The species composition of the Atlantic 
Flyway duck bag was computed independ- 
ently in the wing collection survey and in 
the waterfowl kill survey (table A-2, p.43). 
Both surveys showed the black duck to be 
the most frequent species bagged, followed 
in turn by the mallard and the wood 
duck. 
As explained in the introduction (p. 2), 
the western form of the questionnaire 
sent to some waterfowl hunters in the 
Atlantic Flyway did not list the black duck 
as a separate species. Undoubtedly this 
error caused the black duck to be in- 
sufficiently reported in some States and 
possibly the mallard to be reported too 
frequently. Both surveys reported a small 
proportion of redheads, but only the water- 
KILL SURVEY. 
fowl kill survey indicated a bag of canvas- 
backs. 
The survey estimated that 96,508 geese 
were retrieved during the 1960-61 season, 
an increase of 61 percent from the previous 
year (table A-9, p. 50). Anadditional 10,631 
were killed but not retrieved, a decrease 
of 15 percent. 
The bag of Canada geese increased 75 
percent (68,395 estimated bagged); this 
species composed more than 70 percent 
of all geese retrieved. The total bag of 
brant increased 32 percent. 
Coots retrieved numbered 26,533, an 
increase of 152 percent from the previous 
year. Coots killed but not retrieved totalled 
8,246, an increase of 47 percent; thus the 
total kill (34,779) increased 116 percent. 
The survey indicated that the number of 
potential hunters increased slightly (3 per- 
cent) in the Atlantic Flyway. Although the 
number of active hunters decreased 4 
percent, (table A-10, p. 51), the average 
number of times they hunted (3.7) increased 
8 percent from the previous year, and their 
average seasonal bag (4.3 ducks per hunter) 
increased 23 percent. 
WING COLLECTION SURVEY 
Flyway-wide age ratios of the more 
important species of ducks in the kill 
during the 1959-60 and 1960-61 hunting 
seasons in the Atlantic Flyway are listed 
in table B-3 (p. 56). 
A rather small collection of mallard 
wings made near Georgetown, S. C. in 
both 1959-60 and 1960-61 suggests an 
increase in the proportion of immature 
to adult mallards in the kill (table B-2). 
Age ratios of mallards and black ducks 
obtained in various parts of the Flyway 
are summarized in table B-5. 
The species composition of the kill as 
represented by wings collected was com- 
pared with the waterfowl kill survey (table 
