Ten Ducks, Four Geese

In an office at the Department of Agriculture, behind a desk often littered with drawing papers, crayons and watercolors, sits a quizzical, conscientious public servant whose fame is far greater as Cartoonist J. N. ("Ding") Darling of Des Moines, Iowa than as Director Darling of the U. S. Biological Survey. Upon him, for many months, have converged strong currents of conflicting opinion, brought to bear by two opposing armies of enthusiasts on an issue which it was ''Ding" Darling's public trust and duty to decide.

Long and prayerfully he pondered and last week, with President Roosevelt's imprimatur, at last promulgated his decision: There will, after all, be an open season for shooting wild ducks this autumn.

To formulate his decision. Director Darling began with a duck census, taken by conservation agents and helpful sportsmen all over the U. S. one day last February, just before the northward flight (TIME, Feb. n). Census-takers posted themselves on bays, inlets, lakes and rivers in such a way as to try to avoid counting the same ducks twice. Against the rough tally thus obtained, the Biological Survey checked later reports from northern breeding grounds, arriving at the figure of 24,000,000 as the number of ducks that will fly south this autumn.

Since some 600,000 gunners bought the $1 duck stamps which Director Darling issued last year to raise funds for wild fowl conservation, he can count on probably one million duck gunners who, if each killed only a dozen ducks all season, would reduce the visible duck supply by one-half.

This duck arithmetic, arbitrary though it may be. strongly affects not only protective bodies like the National Association of Audubon Societies but also sportsmen who hope that their sons and grandsons may not grow up too late to enjoy the ancient and honorable sport of wildfowling. If each pair of this year's ducks were allowed to live through this winter and go north again next spring, the duck population might increase by next season to 80 million ducks, enough to assure the birds of a fresh start.

Weighing against all this arithmetic is the fact that U. S. wildfowling as now organized constitutes an industry which supports tens of thousands of human families. Also weighing is the fear that, were the duck season ever closed down entirely, even for one year, conservationist zeal would prevent its ever being pried open again.

By way of compromise, and to keep the estimated 1935 kill down to five or six millions out of his 24,000,000 ducks, Director Darling clamped several stringent new restrictions on this year's shooting. Chief of these are:

No sink boxes or sneak boats for open water gunning; no blind of any kind more than 100 ft. from shore.

No gunning over baited water or ground.

No live decoys.

No more than three shells in a gun, and no gun larger than 10-gauge.

Bag limits: ten ducks and four geese or brant per day.

No more than one day's bag limit allowed in possession at any time.

No shooting before 7 a. m. or after 4 p. m.

Finally, Director Darling divided the country into two seasonal zones instead of three. In the Northern Zone, the season will be Oct. 21 to Nov. 19 inclusive. Southern Zone: Nov. 20 to Dec. 19.

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