Evening star., 1935-11-03

ruddy ducks and bufflehead ducks
at any time.
repeating shotguns. Shotguns only
and not any larger than a No. 10
gauge. A 81 Federal duck stamp at
tached to a hunters license or Ger
tificate. The money from the sale Of
these stamps. after this year esti-
mated at about sl.000.000 annually.
is to be used to buy more duck-nest-
ing areas, so that more ducks may be
raised.
Further, shooting is restricted to 7
am. to 4 pm. the bag limit has been
cut to 10 in the aggregate Of all kinds,
with possession of more than one days
bag illegal. And no open season on
wood ducks, ruddy ducks or bufnehead
ducks.
Also. this year, for the first time, q
new type of game officer is enforcing
regulations. This follows complete re-
vamping Of the Game Law Enforce.
ment Division Of the survey into eight
regional units. About so men were
added to this game management per-
Sonnel.
Formerly administration Of the game
laws centered in Washington. Now it
is from the various districts or re-
gional offices set up. For instance,
region No. embraces the States Of
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois
and Missouri. Headquarters for this
region are at Winona, MINI.
Mobile troops or flying officers from
Winona are capable Of rowing any
section Of this district upon short
notice and apprehend any violators Of
the Federal migratory laws. They are
in a position to clean up" on short
notice violations, such as trapping,
night shooting, Spring shooting and
excess bags. In addition, they are to
render assistance to local game war
dens in the care and protection of
upland game, a function still handled
by individual States.
Another interesting phase of the
new wild-ife program is the study of
the relation of kill" to the wildfowl
population.
THIS is ordinarily accomplished by
banding wild ducks and geese on
Government preserves and asking
hunters who kill such marked birds to
return the bands to Washington. This
practice has shown, in past years, that
the relation of kill" to population
fluctuates around Is per cent. And
there are fewer wild ducks now than
before the drought.
THE study Of bird migration is one
of the most fascinating of all
nature studies. How and why do they
migrate? What is behind the annual
hegira that takes these winged sailors
of the sky from Northern to Southern
climes at the beginning of one season
and back at the beginning of another?
And stranger still, what is it that takes
them over land and sea across CONT
nents and past pleasant spots of stop
page on to the uttermost ends Of the
earth? There are birds that migrate
from the Arctic to the Antarctic, trail
ing the whole length of the conti-
nents Of Africa and Australia.
For more than so years, says Fred
erick c. Lincoln. biologist Of the sur
vey, the survey has been studying mi
grafton. Years ago." he says, wells
w. Cooke, the father Of bird-migration
studies in America, worked out the
routes Of travel Of most of our migra-
tory birds.
To-day we have a method of study
ing bird migration that provides us
with detailed information about in
dividual birds. This Is the banding
method. Our co-operators trap birds
throughout the country and put light
aluminium bands on the birds legs.
These bands are all numbered and
they carry the return address of the
Bureau Of Biological Survey. Through
these bird-banding studies we have
thus obtained thousands of records
of the travel of birds.
"As q result, we have records of
where many thousands of ducks have
nested in the North or spent the Win
ter IN the South, and where they have
oeen subsequently taken by the hunter.
BY studying and mapping these rec
ords we have been able to discover
well-defined lanes Of travel.
When we speak Of the flight line Of
an individual bird we call it miRra- =
tion route. We have found that these
migration routes blend or come to-
gether in definite geographic regions.
These we call hyways. In other
words, the individual migration routes
are like long trails, while the fiyways
resemble shorter arterial boulevards to
which the routes are tributary.
his attachment Of migratory birds
Tor their ancestral fiyways is of
great significance to conservationists.
for 1t indicates that II the ducks are
exterminated In one hyway it will at
the best be long time before the re.
gion Is repopulated. even though
ducks from other fiyways continue
to return to the great breeding
grounds Of the North"
Wild fowl hunting is q major in
dustry, judged from the income. An.
nually the sum is in the neighborhood
OF $500, 100000. Most Of this revenue
Is derived from game birds along the
great Mississippi dyway. Here is the
best duck shooting in the country
where the Mississippi. Missouri, Illinois
and Ohio Rivers converge. Ducks
come down these water courses and
are massed in great concentration in
the valley, feeding in the marshlands
and resting before they resume their
journey to the sunny shores of Louis
lana and the Gulf Of Mexico. Amer
ican ducks are mostly marsh ducks,
mallards. pintails, canvasbacks, wide-
cons. teals and gadwalls.