an acre to 3 acres. Additional areas will be set aside this spring to increase the 
cover and tne interspersion of the introduced types with natural cover. Regulation 
of the game kill is accomplished by the permit system of hunting together with 
special patrol by a deputy game warden. 
The cottontail investigation has included study of life history, ecology, 
and management. Life history aspects now being investigated are breeding habits, 
food habits, and home and seasonal range. Controlled tests as to choice of foods 
during various seasons are now being run. The frequency of use of dens during 
winter is being determined by use of a double recording potentiometer. 
An intensive home and seasonal range study has been in progress since last 
fall. Eighty-five rabbits have been trapped and tagzed and in an effort to learn 
about their movements, about 50 live traps are operated daily. Incomplete returns 
indicate that territorial range varies from 0.8 to 3.8 acres in winter and from 
0.5 to 1.8 acres during the fall months. 
Ecological study is being conducted on three areas. On the Lebanon area 
the work is correlated with the farm-game management program. At the State College 
at Storrs the effect of various silvicultural practices upon the rabbit habitat 
is under observation. On the Rockville area farm-game relationships are being 
studied with no management in view. A complete cover map was made of the Rockville 
area during the summer of 1936. 
A statistical analytical program is in progress at the offices of the State 
Board of Fisheries and Game. A standard technique has now been developed for 
analysis of the game kill, and short-cut methods will give necessary information 
for proper administration some four months prior to a hunting season. Under former 
' methods similar information has been unavailable for 15 months after the game was 
killed. The new technique reduces this time to 6 months. 
A 1,500-acre area 3 miles north of Storrs, mostly wooded, and typical of 
Connecticut hardwoods, with conifers scattered along streams and valleys, has been 
eridironed with lines running 5 chains apart for the purpose of seasonal grouse 
censuses. Two counts have been made, one in October 1936, the other in February 
1937. A complete cover map of the area was prepared during the fall of 1936. 
ALABAMA UNIT--LEADER APPCINTED OCTOBER 24, 1935 
Research at the Alabama Unit has progressed on four problems: (1) life 
history and management of the mourning dove, (2) quail management, (3) white- 
tailed deer management, and (4) waterfowl-food studies. 
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Study of the mourning dove has been given primary consideration. About 
25,000 questionnaire cards requesting information on dove nests were distributed to 
interested persons im 211 parts of the State during February and March 1936. The 
State extension workers and game wardens assisted in this work. A summary of the 
_ approximately 600 cerds returned showed the average height of the nests observed to 
' be 10.8 feet. Forty-three percent cof the nests were built in evergreen trees, 51 
' percent in deciduous trees, and 6 percent on the ground. These records, should be 
compared with an intensive study made of approximately 70 nests within a radius of 
5 miles of Auburn, Ala., which showed that the average height was 26.2 feet and 
that 86 percent were built in pine trees. In the Auburn investigation dove nests 
were found in each month from February to October, inclusive, the lowest 6 1/2 
feet and the highest 66 feet above ground. Intensive observations were made on 
' several nests to determine the habits of the incubating birds and the feeding of 
nestlings. 
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