WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
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INVESTMENT BUILDING, WASHINGTON 5, D. C.
were -.resent. I am pretty sure of this as, while we only
geot 73 ducks banded on the Study Area because the abundance of
natural food made it very hard to get them to take bait, we
had only one banded bird shot opening day out of the 33. Al-
so I believe the total kill was less, as many hunters went
out for woodcock and partridge as the season opened the same
day, who would otherwise have been out for ducks. Out of 22
men who went duck shooting opening day last year from Freder-
icton, eight went after upland game this year. This is just
a s-all sample of the local sportsmen, but they are all keen
duck hunters and I think the proportion is about right.
Cur results from the northern banding stations were
very encouraging considering that we were starting from scratch
with inexperienced banders operating in country they had never
seen before and about which no detailed information was a-
vailable. we asked for one thousand bands and were told thlat
it would take us years to use them. The operators were with-
drarn to go back to college October 1st when the migration
was still at its height at two of the stations. By theftate
943 ducks had been banded out of the One thousand bancs is-
sued. I am pretty sure that with this year's experience a-
vailable, we can come close to doubling this figure next year.
On my last trip to southern Labrador after I left
Madison, I came up on the boat with a fur buyer who tells me
that every year "a few of those large, red, very coarse, salt
water mink come on the market from the Bay of Fundy shore of
Nova Scotia." He gave me the names and addresses of the
traders who send them in, and I have written to try and get
a ski'n and skull if any are brought in this year. The trail
of M1ustela macrodon crows warmer.
That's about all my news for now. I am looking for-
ward to seeing my thesis bound and Bob is taking care of it
for me in good shape.
As ever,