Mayhew 1950 Mallard 26. April 26 Conaway Ranch, 2 mi. east of Woodland, Yolo Co., Calif. They flew low over the grain appearing as though they were looking for nesting sites. The ♀ flew in the lead in all cases, with the ♂ following behind. A number of times 3 & 6 birds would be seen flying together. These groups usually contained 1 or 2 ♀s & the rest ♂. The ♂ flew along for a short distance & then dropped out, as though they were looking for their own mates. By 9.A.M. very few were seen flying. Nearly all of them were seen loafing on the flooded rice fields at this time. April 28 at 6 A.M. I was between barley & wheat fields & see in which fields the most Mallards were searching for nesting sites. The great majority were seen flying over the wheat at the S.E. corner of the grain area (section 17). By 7:30 A.M. most of the ducks had either returned to the newly flooded fields for rice or were loafing on ditch banks that pass through the grain fields. May 7 I spent 2 hours in the middle of the day walking through wheat fields looking for Mallard nests, but I found none. I walked a little over 2 miles in the wheat field itself. I saw only 3 Mallards fly over the area the entire time — 2 of these were ♂? May 13 I covered another 2 miles of wheat today without a trace of a Mallard nest.