356 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 2j, Art. 2 



to evaluate the influence on the kill of 

 seasons of various lengths. 



Fig. 21 shows the influence of open 

 seasons of various lengths on the total 

 yearly kill of three Illinois River valley 

 clubs. While various shooting hours 



6 YEARS 

 1925-1930 



2 YEARS 

 1940-1941 



2 YEARS 

 1938-1939 



4 YEARS 

 1934-1937 



Fig. 21. — Influence of open seasons of vari- 

 ous lengths on the total yearly kill of ducks at 

 three Illinois River valley clubs where, even 

 when baiting was legal, little bait was used. 



were in eflect during the years repre- 

 sented, evidence presented later indi- 

 cates that these hours had little in- 

 fluence on the kill. Baiting and use of 

 live decoys were permitted during some 

 of the years, but the three clubs studied 

 did little and sometimes no baiting. 

 As the seasons decreased in length 

 there was an increase in the duck kill 

 per day. For example, with seasons of 

 105 days, the average total kill of the 

 three clubs was 94 ducks per day. With 

 30-day seasons, it was 151 ducks per 

 day. 



Many of the seasons of 105 to 107 

 days provided proportionally fewer good 

 hunting days than some of the shorter 

 seasons because of the freeze-up and the 

 exodus of most waterfowl long before 

 the closing date. As shown in fig. 16, 

 the greatest hunting intensity occurs 

 during the first half of the season. 



Probably a larger daily kill is made 

 in short seasons than in long seasons 

 in most states of the central and north- 

 ern zones. In the southern zone, it is 

 quite possible that longer seasons may 

 result in average daily kills as large as in 

 short seasons and in total waterfowl 

 kills proportional to the length of the 



seasons, for the composition and the 

 density of the population are more 

 nearly uniform in that zone during the 

 hunting season than in the other zones. 

 Despite the fact that the duck kill in 

 Illinois is not in direct ratio to the 

 length of the season, altering the length 

 of the season is obviously one of the 

 most expedient ways to regulate the 

 duck kill. It must be remembered, 

 however, that the kill during a 30-day 

 season is apt to be considerably more 

 than half the kill made during a 60-day 

 season. 



Optimum Shooting Hours 



The daily shooting hours are of great 

 concern to Illinois waterfowlers. This 

 is due to the fact that mallards and 

 black ducks, which over the season as a 

 whole in recent years comprised about 

 85 per cent of the duck population, have 

 two principal feeding periods during the 

 day. One is early in the morning; the 

 other late in the afternoon. During these 

 periods most of the mallards leave the 

 large rest lakes, flying to cornfields a few 

 hundred yards to 40 miles distant. 

 Some hunters, especially those in the 

 public shooting group, believe they have 

 greatly increased chances of killing 

 ducks in the cornfields. Usually, only 

 on the morning and evening flights or on 

 cold, windy days is cornfield shooting 

 profitable. 



Do earlier and later shooting hours 

 appreciably increase the total kill? 

 What has been the effect of altered 

 shooting hours upon the behavior of 

 ducks? 



When the 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., Central 

 Standard Time, shooting regulations 

 were in operation, hunters claimed face- 

 tiously that mallards carried watches, 

 for in the morning slightly before 7 

 the birds would leave the cornfields and 

 return to the lakes. The ducks had 

 flown to the fields slightly before or at t 

 daybreak. In the afternoon, they\ 

 would, as a rule, leave the lakes at i 

 4 o'clock to feed in the cornfields until 

 dusk. As the fields became enshrouded 

 in darkness, seemingly endless streams 

 of mallards could be seen winging their 

 way back to the valley rest lakes. 



With the return of sunrise shooting in i 



