Vol. 25, Wo. 9 
Page 4 
In the spring of 1932, the pheasant population at Bogota continued to be 
relatively high (M/RL 25(6):2-3)» so we expected the high levels of desertion 
and parasitism of chicken nests. However, we are unable to explain the Improved 
level of hatchabl1ity for prairie chicken eggs that occurred despite high numbers 
of pheasants on the sanctuaries. 
Of the 17 pheasant nests found on sanctuaries at Bogota this year, only 5 
had hatched, P were destroyed by predators, 3 were abandoned, and the eggs from 
1 nest were collected. Excluding the collected clutch, nest success for 
pheasants was 31.3%, compared with kk.2% nest success for 95 pheasant nests of 
known fate from 1969 through 1931* 
Of only 6 bobwhite nests found this year, ** had hatched, 1 was destroyed by 
predators, and 1 was abandoned. Of 5 mallard nests found on sanctuaries this 
summer, 2 had hatched, and 3 were destroyed by predators. 
Ecology and Management of White-tailed Deer - W-87-R C.M. Nixon, L.P. Hansen, 
J.E. Chelsvig, P.A. Brewer 
Ninety-nine total deer rumina were collected from 12 counties in central and 
west-central Illinois between February 1980 and May 19»2 and the contents were 
analyzed using standard procedures. Eighty-seven foods were identified; 11 of 
these comprised 83 % of the total volume ingested. The 11 plant foods, in order 
of frequency, were corn, honey locust, coralberry, soybeans, grasses, multiflora 
rose, winter wheat, acorns, wild crabapple, Japanese honeysuckle, and small- 
flowered buttercup. Multiflora rose and wild crabapple accounted for \h.2% 
of the total food volume, indicating the importance of successional habitats for 
deer. Collectively, grasses, clovers, ovens, smal1-flowered buttercup, winter 
wheat, and moneywort made up about 5*0% of the total food volume. These items 
are available to deer even during winter, because Illinois rarely has extended 
periods of heavy snow cover. 
Deer in central Illinois apparently are not heavily dependent on hardwood 
browse at any season, even winter. The most heavily browsed hardwood species 
are elms, occurring in 7.0% of the samples but comprising only 0.5% of the total 
volume. Although many studies have found elms to be of low use, undesirable, or 
an emergency diet, our finding that elms are important as browse in spring and 
summer concurs with recent findings in Missouri. 
Other recent work in Missouri emphasized the need for deer to ingest a 
variety of forage, and our data seem to support this study. Although deer may 
use some plant species only in low amounts, ingestion of a mixture of species 
is seemingly important if deer are to meet nutritional and energy demands. The 
Missouri study has also shown that a wide variety of chemical and structural 
compositions of forage exist in early successional habitats, reaffirming the 
traditional management concept of retarding and diversifying succession. 
