CANADA: On the Wing

The beating of wings sounded like thunder in the crisping air. Across 700 miles of flat and rolling water-flecked land from Alberta through Saskatchewan and on east to Manitoba, Canada's great duck factory was emptying for the winter. Some 200 million ducks, incubated in millions of prairie potholes and marshes that yield 65% of the continent's waterfowl, began the long flight south. From Canada they will scud at 40 to 50 m.p.h. over the four great fly ways (see map) to winter havens scattered from the southern U.S. to northern Peru. Along the way, millions will fall before...

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