A combination of light and sound proved economical and practicable for capturing fullwinged and flightless waterfowl and other marsh birds at night. A total of 107 hours of effort resulted in the capture of 1,146 birds of 27 species at an average cost between 50 and 60 cents per bird. Weather had only a minor influence on success of capturing flightless birds, but full-winged birds were caught more easily on darker nights. Finding birds was a problem because they were not usually found at night in the areas frequented during the day. This method is particularly useful in capturing species which are difficult to trap by conventional means. Increasing interest in success at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in capturing full-winged as well as flightless waterfowl by night-lighting suggests that our methods and results be summarized. We are indebted to D. T. Coggeshall for the photographs used in the figures. The use of light and sound in catching waterfowl for commercial purposes and for banding has been described only briefly by Scott (1938), U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (1956), W. G. Leitch (1958), and Lindmeier and Jessen (1961). The reports deal chiefly with capture of flightless ducks. The first attempts to use this technique in our area were made in the fall of 1954, when O. H. Hewitt, C. W. Dane, and L. S. Smith, Montezuma Refuge Manager, caught several coots (Fulica americana) and 28 ducks of eight species, including full-winged redheads (Aythya americana) and ruddy ducks (Oxyura jamaicensus) in 4 hours at the refuge. A flat-bottomed aluminum punt with a 10-hp motor was used. Lighting equipment consisted of two, 300watt, reflector floodlights mounted on a hand-held T frame and powered by a 1,000-watt portable gasoline generator. The response of many birds to the brilliant glare of the floodlights and the ear-splitting racket of two gasoline engines running simultaneously was amazing. Some ducks, blackbirds, and herons fled when we were still some distance away, but the majority of marsh birds, including full-winged as well as flightless ducks, often remained until we were almost on top of them. Most of the ducks swam slowly away, very low in the water, but it was not difficult to approach within a few feet (Fig. 1) and to capture birds with a dip net. Pied-billed grebes (Podilymbus podiceps), coots, and shorebirds sometimes did not move away, but preened or walked slowly about in the glare of the lights (Fig. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.102 on Thu, 23 Jun 2016 05:21:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms CAPTURING WATERFOWL AT NIGHT * Cummings and Hewitt 121