This report, the first of a series of reports on a comprehensive analysis of population data on the? millIard at? the continental level, provides background information including a review of the history of waterfowl management and a resume of previous studies of the mallard. The breeding range of the mallard was subdivided into 16 major and 44 minor reference areas. Each area is discussed in terms of habitat type, quantity of data available, importance to the continental mallard population, and previous waterfowl studies conducted within it.? Two of the 16 major areas have insufficient .bandings prior to the hunting season. These areas represent breeding sites for 18 to 30 percent of the continental mallard population and constitute a serious deficiency in the data base. Locations and femporal distributions of band recoveries from mallards banded in each breeding area are presented on maps and in tables. Possible biases in using band recovery distributions for harvest distributions are outllned; the major problem is variable band reporting rates. Limited evidence suggests that band reporting rates during the 1960's were substantially higher in Canada than in the United States. Detailed tabulations of the locations of recoveries from bandings in each minor reference area are presented in an appendix. Topics of future reports in the series inciude the analysis of harvest and wing survey statistics, breeding population data, relative importance of breeding ground reference areas to the various harvest areas, band recovery rates, the infiuence of harvest and harvest regulations on survival, and factors affecting production inclnding density-dependent relationships.