192 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 27, Art. 2 



law from 1909 to 1911, became a wide- 

 spread practice in the 1920's, and was 

 prohibited bv federal regulation in 1935 

 (Bellrose 1944:333). 



Finally, in recognition of the import- 

 ance of waterfowl problems in Illinois, 

 the Natural History Survey employed 

 Arthur S. Hawkins and Frank C. Bell- 

 rose to initiate a waterfowl research pro- 

 gram in 1938. Up to that time, the study 



feet of baiting and live decoys on water- 

 fowl and "estimated that 6,000,000 

 bushels of corn were fed by Illinois clubs 

 during the 1933 season" (Bellrose 1944: 

 365). 



About 193H initial attention was given 

 to the wood duck, and in 1939 the first 

 successful nesting box of rough-cut lum- 

 ber was developed for this waterfowl spe- 

 cies (Bellrose 1953c/). By experimenta- 



Wildlife technicians preparing to fluoroscope a mallard drake at the Illinois Natural His- 

 tory Survey Held laboratory near Havana. The fluoroscope has facilitated studies involving 

 crippling by hunters and lead poisoning. 



of waterfowl had received little attention tion, a nest box entrance with a 4-inch 



in Illinois. In 1922, at duck hunting horizontal measurement and a 3-inch 



clubs near the mouth of the Sangamon vertical one was evolved in 1942 for 



River, Dr. Frederick C. Lincoln (1924) the purpose of excluding raccoons which 



of the U. S. Bureau of Biological Survey were preying upon the hens and their eggs, 



(now the U. S. Bureau of Sport Fisheries In 1950, a cylindrical, galvanized metal 



and Wildlife) made the first large-scale house was developed to exclude fox squir- 



bandings of ducks in North America, rels, as well as raccoons, as predators on 



Francis M. Uhler of the same agency 

 examined the food contents of duck giz- 

 zards collected at the Duck Island Pre- 

 serve in 1933 (Uhler unpublished re- 



wood duck eggs. 



Because diversion of Lake Michigan 

 water, drainage, and sediment decreased 

 the duck foods in the Illinois River val- 



port). Also, Uhler investigated the ef- ley, several of the early investigations 



