Vol. 7, No. 10 
Page 6 
These data suggest that the prairie chickens at Bogota preferred nest sites 
on high elevations, dominated by grasses 11 to 20 inches tall. A layer of dead 
grass for use in nest construction was also a characteristic of preferred nest 
sites. 
Hamerstrom, F. N., Jr., 0. E. Mattson, and Frances Hamerstrom. 1957- A guide to 
prairie chicken management. Wisconsin Conserv. Dept. Tech. Wildl. Bull. 15- 
128pp. 
6. Rabbit Management J. A. Bailey 
Lord (1963:14-15) described a statistically significant but unexplained 
difference between the number of cottontail rabbits seen on north-south roads and 
the number seen on east-west roads in Champaign County. His data were derived 
from roadside counts made during December and January. Since most of the small 
amount of suitable rabbit cover present on Champaign County farmland during the 
winter is associated with farm homesites, it was thought that Lord's roadside data 
might indicate a correlation between the number of rabbits seen and the number of 
homesites along the routes driven in his survey, and that the number of homesites 
present might be correlated with the hilliness of the terrain. If so, these 
correlations would help to substantiate Lord's suggestion that rabbit abundance is 
associated with hilly terrain. 
Accordingly, Lord's original data were reviewed. The number of homesites 
along roads was obtained from the appropriate 1957 U. S. Geological Survey quad¬ 
rangle maps. All homesites judged to be within 500 feet of the road were counted. 
These data are presented in Table 3- A multiple correlation analysis of the 
entire sample is also presented. None of the correlation coefficients are large 
enough to be considered evidence of correlation. It was concluded that winter 
roadside counts of rabbits are extremely variable and that meaningful correlations 
explaining rabbit distribution would be difficult to obtain in this manner. The 
negative, though not statistically significant, correlation between number of 
rabbits seen and hilliness, obtained when the data were analyzed in the manner 
described, casts doubt upon Lord's belief that rabbit abundance is associated with 
hilly terrain in Champaign County. 
The most consistent implication of these data is that more rabbits were seen 
on north-south roads than on east-west roads; we still cannot explain why. 
Lord, R. D., Jr. 1963- The cottontail rabbit in Illinois. 
Tech. Bull. 3• 94pp. 
Illinois Dept. Conserv. 
