A numbered aluminum band, furnished by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was placed on the left leg of each bird when first trapped. Such data, and the subsequent reports of the kill or capture of banded ducks, provide vital information about their numbers, habits, travels, what happens to them, and what hunting regulations are needed to insure that no species will suffer too much and none become extinct. The majority of all reports were from states in the Mississippi valley. More than half were of mallards which, before they get wary, seem to be most vulnerable during their first fall migration. Our banding demonstrated that most of the little blue-winged teal, after nesting in Canada, Minnesota or Wisconsin, migrate southeast toward Georgia or Florida and thence, by way of the West Indies, to South America.
Most coots appear to fly east to the Atlantic coast and then southward.
That tough old bird must have traveled more than 100,000 miles. Argonne National Laboratory, Division of Educational Programs, Harold Myron, Ph.D., Division Director.