Illinois, were birds liberated on experimental areas by 

 the Illinois Natural History Survey and the Illinois De- 

 partment of Conservation, or progeny of these birds. 



Abundance data based on winter sex ratios and 

 spring counts of cock calls during the 4-year period, 

 1957-1960, fig. 15, substantiate fairly well the distribu- 

 tional and abundance data reported by rural mail 

 carriers, fig. 8. The highest population indices were in 

 Ford and Livingston counties, a finding that supports 

 other observations that the center of greatest abundance 

 of pheasants in Illinois is located in this east-central 

 area. 



Preno's estimates of the kill of cocks per square mile 

 for the 3-year period, 1957-1959, estimates based on 

 postcard questionnaires, appear to be high, fig. 16. The 

 percentages of cocks harvested on a township-sized area 

 in Ford County, near the junction of Livingston and 

 McLean counties, during the same 3 years were calcu- 

 lated to be 20, 57, and 66 per cent, respectively: these 

 data were based on changes between the prehunt and 

 posthunt sex ratios (no allowances were made for illegal 

 kill of hens). Harvest statistics by individual counties, 

 on which fig. 16 is based, show a kill of 62, 129, and 93 

 cocks per square mile in Ford County for 1957, 1958. 

 and 1959, respectively. The application of the number 

 representing the proportion of cocks harvested, as indi- 

 cated by changes in sex ratios, to the estimated kill of 



cocks per square mile would yield prehunt estimates of 

 310, 226. and 140 cocks per square mile. However, the 

 prehimt population on the township area mentioned 

 above was estimated to be 47 cocks per square mile in 

 November. 1957. and the abundance of pheasants in thb 

 township is considered to be as high as. or nearly as high 

 as, that in the remainder of Ford County, fig. 8. Even 

 though most county estimates of the kill of cocks are 

 probably too high, these kill statistics tend to confirm 

 the patterns of distribution and abundance previously 

 presented in this report. 



SUMMARY 



Pheasants first established self-maintaining popula- 

 tions in several northeastern counties of Illinois during 

 the 1920's. They spread westward and southward and 

 had established a center of abundance in Livingston and 

 Ford counties in east-central Illinois by the late 1930's, 

 a center that has persisted through the 1940's and 

 1950's. Small areas of abundance existed in northeastern 

 Illinois and in Stephenson Countv- of northwestern Illi- 

 nois in the late 1940's; some of these areas of abundance 

 have persisted but at lower population levels. Pheasants 

 have never established self-maintaining populations in 

 the central western and southern counties of Illinois, 

 except in a few small areas where populations exist at 

 low levels of abundance. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Aldrich, John W., and Allen J. Duvall 



1955. Distribution of American gallinaceous game birds. 

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Carney, Samuel M., and George A. Petrides 



1957. Analysis of variation among participants in pheasant 

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Greeley, Frederick 



1960. The ring-necked pheasant. Pp. 28 9 in .^tlas of Illi- 

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Kimball, James W. 



1949. The crowing count pheasant census. Jour. Wildlife 

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Kozicky, F.dward L. 



1952. Variations in two spring indices of male ring-necked 

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Leopold, Aide 



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MacMullan, Ralph A. 



1960. Michigan pheasant populations. Game Division Re- 

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1952. It's in the bag. 111. Wildlife 7(2):4-5. 



McCabe, Robert A., Ralph A. MacMullan, 

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1956. Ringneck pheasants in the Great Lakes region. Pp. 

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Robertson, William B., Jr. 



1958. Investigations of ring-necked pheasants in Illinois 

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1958. Factors in Wisconsin pheasant production. Wis. 

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Walcott, Frederic C. 



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Ycalter, Ralph E. 



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1953. Air temperature affects pheasant range. III. Wildlife 

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16 



