Vol. 7, No. 6 
Page 2 
Table 1. Status of nests on manipulated and on control roadside plots along 
7 miles of roadway, Sibley Study Area, June 30, 1963, and June 26, 1964. 
Nests 
Number of 
Nests 
Seeded 
Plots 
Control 
Plots 
1963 
1964 
1963 
1964 
Active 
1 
5 
1 
3 
Hatched 
9 
4 
4 
1 
Abandoned and/or Destroyed 
17 
43 
22 
29 
Tota 1 
27 
52 
27 
33 
3- Factors Influencing Distribution 
and Abundance of 
Pheasants 
W. L 
. Anderson, 
S. L. Wunderle 
Thirty-four pheasants (14 cocks and 20 hens) were located by a combination of 
visual observations and audial triangulations on the Neoga Study Area during May 
1964. The pheasants located included 14 native cocks and 18 native hens hatched 
on the study area in 1 963 or earlier, and 2 game-farm Korean hens released in 
March 1963- In 1963, the breeding population was composed of 94 cocks and 226 
hens. Thus, there was an 89 percent decrease in breeding population from 1963 
to 1964. The maximum possible posthunt (iate December, 1 96 3) population was 
153 pheasants (53 cocks and 105 hens). This was a 79 percent decrease in 
pheasant numbers from late December, 1963, to May 1964. As in previous years, 
the survival of native pheasants from the posthunt period (December) to the 
following breeding season (May) appeared insufficient to maintain a huntable 
population of pheasants in south-central Illinois. 
4. Responses of Bobwhites and Prairie Chickens to Habitat Manipulation 
J. A. Ellis, R. J. Ellis, R. L. Westemeier 
Counts of prairie chickens on booming grounds of the Bogota Study Area 
indicated that the population there during the spring of 1964 was equal to that 
found 1 year earlier (Table 2, Monthly Wildlife Research Letter, July, 1963)- 
Elsewhere in Illinois, most populations were noticeably smaller in 1964 than in 
I 963 (Monthly Wildlife Research Letter, April, 1964). That prairie chicken 
numbers at Bogota were not similarly reduced probably was due to the Ralph E. 
Yeatter Prairie Chicken Sanctuary. Approximately 50 chicks were hatched on the 
sanctuary during 1963- 
