subsequent sight records and returns supplemented these obser- 

 vations. Further information was obtained concerning roosting 

 places and general activity of the birds by walking through the 

 area. Flock A was composed entirely of males and contained 145 

 birds in the fall of 1949; it declined to 15 birds by the spring of 1952. 



In the fall and winter of 1949-1950, the daily routine of Flock A 

 began with a flight from the roosting grounds on unmown slopes 

 in the southwest quarter of section 10. This flight to booming 

 ground number one ( B-1 ) usually occurred approximately one-half 

 hour before sunrise, but was later on days with inclement weather. 

 After a few minutes to an hour there, where some birds would feed 

 in the adjacent cornfield, the flock would fly west to the cultivated 

 land in the northeast quarter of section 16 (F-1), where the prin- 

 cipal morning feeding would be done on waste cane and soybeans. 



Fig. 5. The usual ranges of four flocks of greater prairie chickens 

 using the Welda Area in winter, and the movements of banded 

 birds (cf. Fig. 8). Banding sites are indicated by dots and the 

 movements of banded birds by arrows. 



After the flock fed, the birds would return to the vicinity of the 

 roosting area, or to a similar site, where the middle of the day would 

 be spent loafing. In the evening, the feeding area and the boom- 

 ing ground would again be visited, but not in so regular an order 

 as in the morning. The birds returned to the roost usually when it 

 was too dark to observe them well, except against the western sky. 



The routine of this flock in 1950-1951 was of the same pattern, 

 but booming ground number two (B-2), and the feeding area in 

 the southeast quarter of section ten (F-2) were used to the exclu- 



[20] 



