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MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois February, 1964 Vol. 7, No* 2 
1. Pheasant Popu1 at ions and Land Use J. E. Warnock 
During the 1963 pheasant hunting season, each of 419 hunters interviewed 
on the Sibley Study Area, in Ford and McLean counties was asked to name his 
county of residence. Each of eight counties was represented by more than 4 
percent of the hunters; the counties, and the percent of all hunters from each, 
were: Cook (14.6), Ford (14.3), Macon ( 8 . 8 ), Madison (6.9), McLean (6.9), 
Champaign (5*7), Sangamon (4.8), and Tazewell (4.3)* Except for Ford County, 
in which 82 percent of the study area is located, there is a sizable urban area 
within or bordering each of these eight counties. Chicago is located in Cook 
County; Decatur in Macon; Alton, Collinsville, and Granite City in Madison; 
Bloomington in McLean; Champaign and Urbana in Champaign; Springfield in 
Sangamon; and East Peoria and Pekin in Tazewell County. Hunters on the Sibley 
Study Area came from 32 other counties, including Lake County in the northeastern 
corner of the state and White County in the southeastern portion of the state. 
This information indicates the willingness of Illinois pheasant hunters to 
travel considerable distances to find good hunting. 
2. Manipu1 at ion of Pheasant Habitat G. B. Joselyn 
Vegetation on 224 randomly selected 5 -meter quadrats, 112 located on seeded 
roadside plots and 112 on control roadside plots, was measured between June 25 
and July 6 , 1963* Seeded grasses (brome, timothy, or orchard grass) were present 
in 96.4 percent of the quadrats on seeded plots; seeded legumes (alfalfa or red 
clover) occurred in 64.4 percent of these quadrats. The 15 species of annual 
weeds occurring in quadrats on seeded plots were not dominant in any quadrats at 
the times the samples were taken. 
Grasses (predominantly blue grass) were present in all quadrat samples 
taken on control plots. Legumes occurred in only 8.0 percent of the samples, 
annual weeds in 51.7 percent. Rapidly growing foxtail dominated the vegetation 
in some control roadside plots during late July and early August, particularly 
along recently reworked roadways. 
Average height of vegetation on seeded plots was 19-2 inches; on control 
plots, 11.6 inches. Average ground area obscured by top cover was estimated to 
be 64.7 percent on seeded plots and 41.8 percent on control plots. The average 
number of stems at a height of 4 inches in quadrats on seeded plots (156.4) was 
lower than the average number on control plots ( 169 - 6 ), probably because blue 
grass was dominant on the latter. Duff (dead vegetative material) covered an 
average of 29-7 percent of the ground area in quadrats on control plots and only 
4.1 percent in quadrats on seeded plots. 
natural history survey 
APR 8 1964 
