MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
T. G. Scott, Editor 
Urbana, Illinois 
February 1959 
Vol. 2, No. 2 
W-30-R-12 
R. F. Labisky 
Investigations of pheasants on the Sibley area during 1957 and 1958 
have provided the basis for a revealing analysis of the relationship of 
pheasant production to land-use practices. The Sibley area reflects two dif¬ 
ferent types of land-use management. About hi; per cent of the 23,200-acre area 
is estate-owned and is tenant-farmed, primarily under the supervision of three 
farm managers (or agencies)j the remainder of the area is privately owned and 
is subjected to various farm management programs. In 1957 and 1958, these 
different land-use programs resulted in proportionately greater acreages of 
tame hays and lesser acreages of pasture on estate lands than on private lands. 
Also, proportionately more hay was mowed and more pasture grazed on private 
lands than on estate lands. How have these differences in land-use affected 
pheasant production? With respect to pheasant nesting, estate farms yielded 
51 and 116 per cent more established nests and 125 and U5U per cent more 
successful nests per unit of land area in 1957 and 1958, respectively, than did 
private lands. 
W-U2-R-8 R. D. Lord 
Analysis of the bag check data from the Robert Allerton Park It-H 
study area indicates that the hunters are spending more time to bag a rabbit 
than previously. Hunters spent a total of 365 hours to bag 109 rabbits, or 
3.35 hours per rabbit during the 1958-59 season. The fall population of rabbits 
on this study area was 32U, therefore the hunters bagged 33.6 per cent of the 
fall population. The trend in the hunting statistics for this area may be seen 
in the following table. 
Year 
Fall 
Population 
Gun 
Hours 
Rabbit s 
Bagged 
Per Cent of 
Fall Crop 
Hours Per 
Rabbit 
1956 
333 
I5ii 
113 
33.9 
1.36 
1957 
259 
269 
92 
35.5 
2.92 
1958 
32b 
365 
109 
33.6 
3.35 
Three visitors, William Edwards from Ohio, and Howard Wight and 
Clinton Conway from Missouri, came to confer with the project leader concerning 
OCT 9 1959 
NATURAL- 
HISTORY SURVEY 
LIBRARY 
