172 Game Survey of the North Central States 



While the aggregate numbers may seem large, the average State-wide density 

 of population indicated for Missouri and Indiana in the last column is pitifully 

 low compared with the former hosts of days gone by. 



The Wisconsin census of 110,000 birds of both species, divided by the area 

 suitable for chickens as estimated in the Wisconsin report (8,100 square miles) 

 gives thirteen chickens per square mile, or 50 acres per chicken during the 

 medium year 1930 on the actual chicken range, as against 330 acres per chicken 

 for the State as a whole. Both of these Wisconsin densities seem to me a little 

 optimistic. I doubt whether there are that many. 



The almost exact equality in numbers between the two species in Wisconsin 

 probably represents a very reliable species ratio. 



The distribution of density in Wisconsin appears on Map 15. 



The Indiana "Comeback" of 1912. The evidence already presented in 

 the chapter on cycles shows beyond dispute that both species of prairie chicken 

 are now cyclic in the Lake States. It is even more important to find out whether 

 they are or were cyclic in their original home in the Agricultural Belt. The cap- 

 tion on "skipped cycles" has shown strong evidence of cyclic behavior through- 

 out Wisconsin, including the southern part, and suggestive evidence that skipped 

 cycles or declines throughout the region coincide with the dates of the cycle for 

 chickens and for all species. 



None of this evidence, however, is conclusive of either present or past 

 behavior in Iowa, Illinois, or Indiana. 



One of the instances of sudden decline took place near Beardstown, 111., 

 where the chickens are said to have disappeared "all at once, like the passenger 

 pigeon" about 1890, and are now extinct. 



The question of early cycles must be left unanswered for Iowa, Minnesota, 

 and Illinois. In Indiana, while the early behavior is unknown, there is a clear 

 and convincing record of one fluctuation which I have called the "comeback of 

 1912." 



Game Commissioner Miles in his 1913 report says that the 1909 legislature 

 closed the season on chickens because there were only a very few left in the State. 

 These inhabited the prairies adjacent to the Kankakee River. Very few people 

 knew that there were any left at all. By 1912, he says, the birds had increased 

 and spread eastward, repopulating 27 new counties in the brief space of four 

 years. His report concludes that "at least one third of the 92 counties have 

 chickens, and there are certainly more than 100,000 in the State." 



Just when this period of revival ended is not so clear. The season reopened 

 in 191 5T One sportsman consulted during the survey remembered a high in 

 Pulaski County in 1915. Two observers remembered highs in 1919 and 1925. 

 An actual count of the chickens on the Geo. W. Smith farm in Fulton County 

 showed a decrease from 30 to 4 birds between 1925 and 1927. During my visit 

 in 1928 the trend seemed to be slightly upward. Putting these fragments of in- 

 formation together makes the consecutive fragments parallel the northern cycle, 



