better survival and showed denser populations 

 that those less advantageously situatexl. Move- 

 ments were affected to the extent that, during the 

 water-criticjil period of June to September, quail 

 made fre<iuent, possibly daily, trips to water, and 

 oriented their movements accordingly. Extreme 

 movements of 2 to 3 mile^';, involving 20 percent of 

 the marked quail observed, to new catchment 

 basins occurred following dr\ing up of water 

 supplies on the home range. 



Golden eagle popiihition study. — The golden 

 eagle has decreased in numbers and has disap- 

 peared over nnich of its former range. A knowl- 

 edge of its population dynamics in an undisturbed 

 jKjpulation is needed to evaluate the status of the 

 si>ecies in areas where its habitat has lieen greatly 

 altered. Data obtained by the ifontana Unit on 

 the 1,260-square-mile study area in the vicinity of 

 Livingston. Mont., should sene as a standard for 

 measuring and tabulating population changes in 

 the future, especially those due to changes or 

 practices detrimental to the species. 



During the study (1962 through the summer of 

 1964), 38 occupied eyries were ob.servei'. from 

 which an average of 1.4 eagles per eyrie was 

 produced. It is believed tliat a relatively accurate 

 determination of average clutch size was made 

 during the spring of 1964 by obsening and re- 

 cording eggs just after they were laid. The aver- 

 age clutch determined for this period was 2.1 eggs 

 per eyrie. 



Individual prey specimens collectexi and identi- 

 fied from 38 nests numbered 980. "\Miitetail 

 jackrabbits and desert and mountain cottontails 

 represented 69.8 percent of the prey specimens. 

 The remaining items of major importance were 

 yellow-bellied marmots, Richardson ground squir- 

 rels, and black-billed magpies. Domestic sheep 

 are raised in the region, and there are approxi- 

 mately 30,000 sheep in the main study area. There 

 was no evidence of predation on sheep or other 

 domestic stock in the study area itself. In 1963, 

 one domestic lamb was found in an eyrie on the 

 adjoining segment. 



Graduate students of the Utah I'nit a^ng Gambel's quail in hunters' kill by the nang-molt pattern. (Photo b.v 



Utah Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit) 



39 



