MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
o. & 
/**>, y 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
T. G. Scott, Editor 
Urbena, Illinois 
ApriI, 1963 
Vcl. 6, No. 4 
1. Pheasant Populations and L ^nd Use J. E. Warnock, G. B. Joselyn 
The hatching success of pheasant nests established on the Sibley study area in 
1962 was highest in pastures ( 29*6 percent), intermediate in hay (22.8 percent), 
and lowest in strip cover (15*3 percent). Table 1. However, hayfields yielded 
about 2j times as many hatched nests as all of the other cover types combined. 
Abandonment of nests by hens accounted for losses of 22.1 percent of all es¬ 
tablished nests in 1952, and was the most important single factor limiting nest 
success. Farming operations were directly responsible for disrupting 12.8 percent 
of all established nests. Surprisingly, predators were not known to have directly 
destroyed a single nest in 1982, although they probably indirectly destroyed some 
of the nests listed in the category of abandoned and/or destroyed by predators. 
Table 1. Percentage comparison of fate of pheasant nests established in dif¬ 
ferent cover types on the Sibley study area, I 962 . Data were collected from 100 
randomly selected 10-acre plots comprising a 4.3 percent sample of the 2?,200-acre 
study area. Numbers of nests are in parentheses. 
Fate of Nests 
Sma 11 
G ra i ns 
Hay 
Pasture 
Strip 
Cover 
Nonag ri- 
cultural 
Total 
Hatched 
19.4(6) 
22.8(73) 
29.6(8) 
15.3(H) 
25.0(5) 
21.9(103) 
Abandoned 
19.4(6) 
20.4' v t4) 
25.9(7) 
25-0(13) 
45.0(9) 
22.1(104) 
Destroyed by farm machinery 
or observer' 
6.5(2) 
15.3(49) 
3-7(1) 
8.3(6) 
10.0(2) 
12.8(60) 
Abandoned and/or destroyed by: 
a) Mammalian predators 
29.8(8) 
18.4(99) 
7.4(2) 
36.1(26) 
20.0(4) 
21.1(99) 
b) Avian predators 
0.0(0) 
0.0(C) 
0.0(0) 
1.4(1) 
O.C(O) 
0.2(1) 
c) Farm machinery 
25.3(8) 
19.1(61) 
7.4(2) 
4.2(3) 
0.0(0) 
15-7(74) 
d) Livestock 
0.0(0) 
0.0(0) 
22.2(6) 
o.c{o) 
0.0(0) 
1.3(6) 
e) Unknown causes 
0.0(0) 
0 . 9 ( 3 ) 
3-7(1) 
4.2(3) 
0.0(0) 
1-5(7) 
Combinations of above 
factors 
3.2(1) 
3.4(11) 
0.0(0) 
5.6(4) 
0.0(0) 
3-3(16) 
Total nests established 
+ 
100.1 ( 31 ) 
99 . 9 ( 27 ) 
99 . 9 ( 27 ) 
100 . 1 ( 72 ) 
100.0(20) 
99-9(470) 
Includes nests accidentally disrupted by farmers, etc. 
NATURAL 
HISTORY SURVEY 
