state in order to eliminate error introduced by the 

 shrinkage that occurs during storage in the laboratory; 

 when thoroughly dried, foods of this type often shrink 

 to but a small fraction of their original volume. 



Accuracy in determining the average unit volume for 

 each kind of food depended upon measuring a large num- 

 ber of specimens. If the bobwhite crops did not yield 

 enough specimens of any food to permit reliable meas- 

 urements to be made, additional specimens of the same 



food were taken from the reference collection used in 

 food habits studies at Southern Illinois University, or, 

 if neither source yielded an adequate number of speci- 

 mens, an estimate of average unit volume was obtained 

 by comparison with foods of known volume. 



In most cases the total volume of a specific food 

 in a crop was calculated by multiplying the number of 

 units of that food by the average unit volume determined 

 for it. When fragments of a food unit occurred in a single 



Table 1.— Number of hunters contacted, number of hunters who contributed bobwhite crops, and number of crops collected 

 from 34 southern Illinois counties during two hunting seasons, November 11-December 11, 1950 and 1951.* 



•The numbers of hunters who were contacted and who contributed bobwhite crops are tabulated according to the counties in which they 

 resided. Each crop is tabulated according to the county in which the bobwhite was killed. The contributing hunters did not necessarily hunt 

 in their home counties. 



I 



