bars of flushed pheasants were captured each fall (be- 

 fore the hunting season) than in the following winter 

 (after the hunting season), table 1. 



An average of 6.7 minutes per pheasant was required 

 to capture the 1,334 pheasants taken during 1956-57, 

 1957-58, and 1958-59, table 1. The average time per 

 pheasant was less in seasons and years in which pheas- 

 ant populations were high than in periods in which the 

 populations were low — only slightly less before the 

 hunting season in each year than after. 



An average of 5.6 minutes was required to process 

 each pheasant that was captured. 



For the 1,334 pheasants handled in the night-light- 

 ing operations, the mortality rate attributed to these 

 operations was 2.4 per cent. Data reported by Leopold 

 et al. (1943:390) indicate that 5 per cent of the birds 

 caught during the bait trapping operations on the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin Arboretum were killed in the traps; 

 most of the losses were caused by dogs. Other Wiscon- 

 sin studies of bait trapping showed a 7 per cent average 

 mortality among trapped pheasants (Buss 1946:123). The 



mortality rate among about 10,000 pheasants captured 



in stationary, baited traps in Wood County, Ohio, over a 



period of 7 years, was 2.5 per cent (Leedy & Hicks 



1945:118). 



We captured other birds, in addition to pheasants, 



by night-lighting. Species that were very susceptible 

 to capture by night-lighting included sora rails (Por- 

 zana Carolina), Virginia rails (Rallus limicola), barn 

 owls (Tyto alba), vesper sparrows (Pooecetes grami- 

 neus), and grasshopper sparrows (Ammodramus savan- 

 narum). Meadowlarks (Sturnella spp.j, screech owls 

 (Otus asio), and stubble quail (Cotumix coturnix) were 

 only moderately susceptible to capture by night-lighting. 

 Mourning doves fZenaidura macroura), marsh hawks 

 (Circus cyaneus), and short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) 

 did not seem to be affected by the lights and could not 

 be captured by night-lighting. 



About 50 cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) 

 were captured coincidentally with the trapping of pheas- 

 ants by night-lighting during 1957-58 and 1958-59. The 

 rabbits were most susceptible to capture by night-light- 



Table 1. — Data relative to capturing pheasants by night-lighting and to processing the captured birds during the prehunling 

 season (October and early November) and posthunting season (December and January) periods of 1956-57, 1957-58, and 1958-59 

 on a 23,200-acre study area in Ford and McLean counties, Illinois. 



* Includes marked pheasants that were recaptured. 



T The ratio of unmarked pheasants flushed to unmarked pheasants captured. 

 ♦♦Numbers of birds in parentheses are estimates based on rough counts. 



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