(Table 6). In other parts of Anderson County, populations prob- 

 ably did not decline so much in 1951 and 1952, and the hunting 

 success was 0.214 birds per gun hour, 0.124 birds per gun hour and 

 0.059 birds per gun hour for 1950, 1951 and 1952 respectively. 



A second test of the value of the success of hunters as a measure 

 of relative populations may be made by comparing the data from 

 Anderson and Woodson counties. The relatively poorer success 

 in Woodson County, in 1951, may be correlated with the poorer 

 productivity in that county, in 1951, as indicated by the low number 

 of young birds bagged by hunters ( see table 7 ) . There were only 

 32.65 per cent of young in the sample from Woodson County, 

 compared to 46.74 per cent in the sample from Anderson County. 

 It is concluded that the average time required to bag a prairie 

 chicken is a useful measure of relative densities of populations. 

 On this basis, in the counties sampled, the greater prairie chicken 



Table 9. The Mean Number of Birds Per Gun Hour and the 0.9546 

 Confidence Limits of the Means, 1950, 1951 and 1952. 



Mean and Limits 



County 1950 1951 1952 



Anderson 0.214=^0.001 0.124=^0.002 0.059^0.006 



Wabaunsee . 144 =fc . 016 . 134 =t . 002 . 271 ± . 024 



Woodson 0.199=^0.008 0.092±0.008 0.113±0.014 



Chase 0.082^ 0.005 



Cowley, Chautauqua and 



Butler 0.164 ±0.019 



State wide average . 185 . 109 . 109 



is least numerous in Chase County, a part of the Bluestem Hills, 

 and there were fewer birds in 1951 than in 1950 throughout the 

 entire range in Kansas. Furthermore, the population in 1952, as 

 indicated by hunters' success, made Httle recovery in spite of dry 

 weather in the hatching season. The state-wide hunting success 

 was the same for the two years (see Table 9). It is especially im- 

 portant to note that in areas of heavy hunting pressure, as in Ander- 

 son County, hunting success declined in 1952, whereas in less popu- 

 lar hunting areas (for example, Wabaunsee County), the success 

 remained relatively good. 



[58] 



