INTRODUCTION 
During the waterfowl-hunting season of 1952-53, the Bureau of 
Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
inaugurated a mail-survey system for obtaining information from 
hunters about the amount of hunting they did, the number of ducks 
they shot, and other information of interest. The survey has been 
repeated each year since that time. Results have been included in 
the annual status reports of waterfowl.! Beginning with the present, 
however, this report will be issued separately. The survey is made 
each year immediately following the. shooting season. The system is 
to select at random a series of sales outlets at Post Offices where 
Migratory Bird Hunting Stamps are sold, and ask these Post Offices 
to give an address card to each person who buys a stamp. The card 
requests the hunter to send his name and address to the Bureau. The 
hunters who do this are then sent the questionnaire. A large sample 
is selected from each flyway. 
Data from the survey are used to estimate the harvest and the 
amount of hunting and to furnish information on the relationships 
between hunting regulations, hunter activity, and harvest, under 
changing conditions. 
The objectives of the 1959-60 survey were to estimate for each 
Flyway: 
(1) The total number of ducks, geese, and coots shot, 
including those that were lost as well as those that 
were retrieved, 
(2) The number of people who planned to hunt (potential 
hunters). 
(3) The number of people who did hunt (active hunters), 
(4) The average number of times active waterfowl hunters 
were in the field hunting during the season. 
(5) The proportion of the total duck bag and proportion 
of total hunting activity in each of six different 
- parts of the season, 
te necial Scientific Report: Wildlife; numbers 22, 26, 29, 33, 37, 
40, 45, and supplement to 45. 
al 
