Vol. 5, No. 9 
Page 4 
5. Responses of Bobwhites and Praixie Chickens to Habitat Manipulation 
J. A. Ellis, R. J. Ellis 
Thirty-eight praixie chickens were located when 132 acres of roosting cover 
near Bagota, Illinois, were searched by nightlighting on September 21. This served 
to test the suitability of the technique for censusing and capturing prairie chickens 
and also provided some information on the roosting habits of prairie chickens during 
September. No attempt was made to capture any of the birds, but they appeared to be 
vulnerable to capture by nightlighting. 
Three classes of roosting cover were cruised. Fields of wheat and oat stubble 
with grass-legume seedings, which were mowed in late summer for weed control, 
constituted 38.6 acres. These fields were characterized by heavy growths of a 
grass-clover mixture, 6 to 10 inches tall. Fields of similar composition, which had 
not been mowed, constituted 67.1 acres. These fields primarily contained heavy 
growths of clover, 8 to 10 inches tall, and ragweeds, 24 to 36 inches tall. Smart- 
weeds, barnyard grass, and panic grass were also common. The third class of roosting 
cover was comprised of 26.5 acres of dense redtop grass stubble, about 10 inches 
tall, broomsedge, and numerous small flowering composites. 
The unmowed stubble clover seedings contained about nine times as many roosting 
prairie chickens as the mowed stubble clover seedings. Table 4. No prairie chickens 
were observed in the redtop grass. 
Table 4. --Numbers of roosting prairie chickens observed during nightlighting 
operations near Bagota, Illinois, September 21, 1962. 
Cover Type 
Mowed 
Clover 
Seeding 
Unmowed 
Clover 
Seeding 
Redtop 
Grass 
Stubble 
Total 
Acres nightlighted 
67.1 
38.6 
26.5 
132.2 
Number of prairie chickens 
observed 
6 
32 
0 
38 
Prairie chickens per acre 
0.09 
0.83 
0.00 
0.28 
