MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
T. G. Scott, Editor 
Urbana, Illinois 
September, 1961 
Vol. 4, No. 9 
1. Pheasant Populations and Land Use R. F. Labisky, S. H. Mann 
Field investigations of pheasant nesting and its relation to land use on the 
intensively cultivated Sibley area have been completed for 1961. The 100 random¬ 
ly selected 10-acre study plots (representing a 4.3 per cent sample of the 23,200- 
acre study area) that were searched for nests in 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960 were 
again searched in 1961. In 1961, 437 nests were located, and 110 (25.2 per cent) 
of these nests hatched. The number of hatched nests (110) recorded in 1961 was 
29.4 per cent greater than the number of hatched nests (85) reported in 1960, 
and also represents the greatest production of hatched nests during the past 5 
years, (Table 1). 
Table 1.— Densities of established and hatched pheasant nests, Sibley area 
(east-central Illinois), 1957-61. 
Densities: Nests per 100 Acres of Land Area 
Years 
Nests Established 
Nests Hatched 
1957 
12.4* 
4.2 
1958 
26.6 
7.9 
1959 
23.6 
5.6 
1960 
28.0 
8.5 
1961 
43.7 
11.0 
^Samples sizes (number of nests) can be obtained by removing decimal points in 
all figures. 
2. Ma nipulation of Pheasant Habitat 
Project inactive in September. 
3. Extension of Pheasant Range J. A. Ellis, W. L. Anderson, J. Harper 
The midpoint (50 per cent point) in the hatch of pheasant nests on the Neoga 
area, Cumberland County, occurred between June 11 and June 25. The June 11 date 
of hatch was obtained by backdating from the ages of 62 pheasant broods which 
were aged in the field to the times of hatching. The later midpoint of hatch, 
June 25, was obtained by calculating the potential hatching dates of 20 unhatched 
