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MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Thomas G. Scott, Editor 
Urbana, Illinois January, 1963 Vol. 6, No. 1 
1. Pheasant Popu1 at ions and Land Use J. E. Warnock, G. B. Joselyn 
An estimated 15*224 pheasants (6,428 cocks, 8,796 hens), or an average of 428 per 
section, were present on the 37-square mile Sibley study area just prior to the 1962 
hunting season. The estimate was obtained with the following ratios: 
Number of Tagged Cocks Shot by 
(1) Hunters Interviewed (96) 
Number of Cocks Tagged during 
Prehunt Period (760) 
where X = 6,428 cocks, and 
Number of Cocks Tagged during Pre 
(2) __h unt Period~ (760) _ 
Number of Cocks Present during 
Prehunt Period (6,428) 
where X = 8,798 hens. 
Number of Cocks Shot by Hunters 
Interviewed (812)_ 
Number of Cocks Present during ’ 
Prehunt Period (X) 
Number of Hens Tagged during Prehunt 
_ Period (1,040) _ 
Number of Hens Present during Pre¬ 
hunt Period (X) 
Farmers, hunters, and project personnel recovered backtags from 372 (49.0 per¬ 
cent) of 760 cock pheasants captured and marked during late September, October, and 
early November, 1262. Hunters shot 314 (41.3 percent) of these marked cocks; 58 
tags were recovered from birds which died from unknown causes. 
Tags were recovered from 85 (8.2 percent) of 1,040 hens marked during the prehunt 
period o f 1362. Hunters killed 20 (1.9 percent) of these marked hens; 65 tags were 
recovered from hens which died from unknown causes. 
2. M anipulation of Pheasant Habitat D. E. Newman 
In 1962, 24, 5 -mile roadside plots and 8 , 1/8-mile roadside plots were seeded to 
a grass-legume mixture along 7 miles of roadway on the Sibley study area for the pur¬ 
pose of establishment top-quality habitat for nesting pheasants along roadways. The 
density, species composition, and height of the vegetation in the seeded plots was 
measured during November; the vegetative sample was comprised of 4, 5 -meter quadrats, 
randomly placed, in each z;--mile plot. Grasses, alfalfa, and red clover averaged 8 , 
7, and 5 inches in height, respectively, and afforded averages of 35, 10, and 16 
percent of the top cover, respectively. Grasses were present in 97 percent of 112 
quadrats; alfalfa and clover had frequencies of occurrence of 73 and 89 percent, re¬ 
spect ively. 
Similar vegetative measurements made in June, 1962, resulted in frequencies of 
15 
NATURAL 
iASJQRY SURVEY' 
