MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois July, 1965 Vol. 8, No. 7 
1. Pheasant Populations and Land Use S. L. Etter 
As of July 25, 1965, only 96 pheasant nests, 20 of them successful, had been 
located on the 100, 10-acre sample plots, Sibley Study Area. Corresponding figures 
for 1964 were 209 nests, 19 of them successful (Monthly Wildlife Research Letter, 
July, 1964). 
The above data, plus the fact that 12 pheasant broods have been observed along 
240 miles of standardized roadside transect during July 1965, compared with 16 
broods recorded for the same number of miles in 1964, suggest that pheasant pro¬ 
duction on the Sibley Study Area in 1 965 may nearly equal that of 1964 despite the 
lower breeding population in 1965- (Monthly Wildlife Research Letter, March, 1965: 
The prebreeding population declined from 4,043 in 1 96 3 to 1,684 in 1965; no aerial 
census was made in 1964.) 
2. Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat G. B. Joselyn 
The second and final search was made for pheasant nests on manipulated and 
on control roadside plots along 9 miles of roadway on the Sibley Study Area from 
July 19 to 22; the first search took place June 15 - 23 (Monthly Wildlife Research 
Letter, June, 1965)- Eighty-five pheasant nests were located on the plots during 
the two searches, 52 (2.5 nests per acre) on seeded plots and 33 (1.6 nests per 
acre) on control plots (Table 1). In 1964, 68 nests (3-8 nests per acre) were 
located on seeded plots and 38 (2.1 nests per acre) on control plots. Forty-four 
nests (2.9 nests per acre) were located on seeded plots in 1963, and 41 nests (2-7 
nests per acre) were located on control plots (Table 1). 
Thus, nest densities on seeded plots in i 960 decreased by 1.3 nests per acre 
from 1964, but only by 0.4 nest per acre from 1963- The decrease in nest density 
on control plots was 0.6 nest per acre from 1964 to 1965 and 1.1 nests per acre 
from 1963 to I 965 . The relatively low nest densities on both seeded and control 
plots in 1965 were at least partially the result of the low breeding population on 
the study area (Monthly Wildlife Research Letter, March, 1965)- 
The 0.7 hatched nest per acre on seeded plots in 1965 was the lowest density 
of hatched nests for the 3 years 1963-65, whereas the density of hatched nests on 
control plots in 1965 (0.4 hatched nest per acre) was higher than in 1964 (0-3 
hatched nest per acre) but lower than in 1 96 3 (0.5 hatched nest per acre). 
