MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
T. G. Scott, Editor 
Urbana, Illinois 
January 1959 
Vol. 2, No. 1 
W-30-R-12 R. F. Labisky 
A final analysis indicates that Ur.O per cent of the cocks were elimi¬ 
nated from the pheasant population on the Sibley area by hunters during the 1958 
hunting season. The estimate was based on the change between the preseason sex 
ratio of U0.7 per cent cocks, obtained from the night-light trapping of 351- 
pheasants, and the postseason ratio of 22.8 per cent cocks, obtained from roadside 
counts of 3,^80 birds during December and January. 
A total of 500 pheasants were trapped by night-lighting, marked with 
plastic backtags and released on the Sibley area during the fall and winter of 
1958-59. In addition, 18 pheasants that had been marked in previous years were 
recaptured and retagged. An average of 10.I* minutes was required to capture and 
mark each pheasant during 1958-59. The mortality of pheasants resulting from 
trapping and handling was only 2.it per cent. 
W-it2-R-8 R. D. Lord 
Because many voluntary reports were received concerning a die-off of 
rabbits in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, a questionnaire was sent to 
all conservation officers and their supervisors concerning the status of rabbit 
populations in their counties. The questionnaire elicited excellent cooperation 
on the part of the conservation officers; 93 per cent answered. It was learned 
from this survey that rabbits have been scarce in the extreme northern part of the 
state and in the southern one-quarter of the state. Between these two areas 
rabbit populations are up. 
There are reports from 12 counties, well scattered over the state, of 
rabbits exhibiting the symptoms similar to those of the new disease of rabbits 
reported previously in these newsletters. In addition, there were "write in" 
reports of Shope’s fibroma from h counties centered around Olney, an area that 
has consistently shown high population densities in Bill Rreno’s censuses, and in 
a recent mail-carrier census. 
W-55-R-3 F. Bellrose 
On January 9 and 10, 1959, we made aerial surveys of waterfowl wintering 
in the northern two-thirds of the state. The U 0 S* Fish and Wildlife Service made 
aerial surveys of waterfowl in the southern part of the state. 
°CT S 1959 
NATURAL 
HISTORY SURVEY 
LIBRARY 
