358 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 2j, Art. 



waste corn. In returning to the lakes, 

 they flew high, out of shotgun range, 

 until over the safety of the open waters. 

 The evening flight to cornfields com- 

 menced at about 5 p.m., C.W.T., almost 

 daily in the 1943 hunting season, and, 

 even though this was before the legal 

 closing time, hunters seldom had targets 

 because the mallards, after leaving open 



light nights they fed actively all night 

 long. As a result many of the sand hill 

 shooting places fed large quantities of 

 corn but were never able to get much 

 shooting." 



A valid objection to permitting water- 

 fowl shooting until sunset is that many 

 shooters — particularly those in the corn- 

 fields — defy the law and shoot after 



Table 10. — Influence of shooting hours on duck kill as derived by comparing the kill 

 during hunting season with the duck population, Illinois River valley, 1938-1942. 



♦Sum of weekly averages for season. 



tRatio of per cent of kill to per cent of population. 



waters, usually flew out of shotgun 

 range. The ducks that arrived at the 

 cornfields before sunset circled over 

 them before alighting until darkness 

 commenced to shroud the fields. 



Because of these changes in feeding 

 habits to compensate for changes in 

 shooting hours, the extension of shooting 

 hours apparently did not result in a 

 larger kill of mallards and black ducks in 

 Illinois. Probably the reverse was true, 

 for mallards, in avoiding cornfields near 

 the river (evidently the result of pre- 

 dawn flushing), had more extensive 

 feeding places, and hence were exposed 

 to less intensive shooting pressure. 



Mallards and black ducks altered 

 their morning and evening feeding 

 routines even in the baiting days. In an 

 ofiicial report, Uhler (1933) states: "By 

 the middle of the hunting season, the 

 ducks became so wary that the major 

 portion of them remained in these rest 

 areas all day, and about 20 minutes 

 after sunset (the close of the legal shoot- 

 ing period) they would start to fly to 

 the surrounding baited pens. Just be- 

 fore dark, literally thousands of mal- 

 lards could be seen milling over the 

 heavily baited spots, alighting only 

 long enough to fill up on corn and then 

 go back to the rest lakes. On moon- 



JHours are for Central Standard Time. 



sunset, when detection and apprehen- 

 sion are difficult. Hunters are more apt 

 to disregard the sunset closing hour 

 than the 4 p.m., C.S.T., closing hour 

 because of the shorter time from sunset 

 until darkness. Observations in the 

 Sangamon bottoms and Thompson Lake 

 drainage district indicate that shooting 

 after dark in 1942 soon resulted in 

 mallards being "burned out" of certaini 

 sections of those areas. Shooting in 

 darkness more than any other disturb-' 

 ance makes ducks avoid or leave areas. 

 Thus, late or pre-dawn shooting not 

 only disturbs the ducks but reacts 

 against the hunters. 



At the conclusion of the 1942 water- 

 fowl season, the Illinois Natural History 

 Survey canvassed the opinion of Illinois 

 duck hunters relative to shooting hours. 

 The returns received show the follow- 

 ing: Seventy hunters preferred the 



1942 regulations, permitting waterfowl 

 hunting from sunrise to sunset. Fifty- 

 two hunters voted for the cessation of 

 hunting at 4 p.m., C.S.T. Twenty-two 

 of these wanted the opening hour kept 

 at sunrise. Thirty hunters voted that 

 waterfowl hunting be permitted only 

 from 7 A.M. to 4 p.m., C.S.T. No can- 

 vass of opinion was made following the 



1943 hunting season, but the general 



