Vo 1. 8, Mo. 9 
Page 2 
table 1. Fate of pheasant nests (percentages)established on seeded and on managed 
control roadside plots--Sibley Study Area. Numbers of nests are in parentheses. 
Fate of Nests 
Seeded Plots 
Managed Control 
1 Plots 
1963 
1964 
1965 
1963 
1964 
1965 
Hatched 
Abandoned 
38.6(17) 
11 .4( 5 ) 
20.6(14) 
20.6(14) 
28.8(15) 
25-0(13) 
17 .n 7 ) 
36.6(15) 
13. 2 ( 5) 
21.1 ( 8) 
24.2(8) 
18.2(6) 
Destroyed by--* 
Mammalian predators 
Avian predators 
Farm machinery 
Humans 
Unknown causes 
34.1(15) 
4.5( 2) 
2.3( 1) 
2-3( 1) 
6.8( 3) 
57-3(39) 
0.0( 0) 
0 . 0 { 0) 
0.0( 0) 
l-5( 1) 
46.1(24) 
0 . 0 ( 0) 
0.0( 0) 
0.0( 0) 
0.0( 0) 
39-0(16) 
0.0( 0) 
0.0( 0) 
0.0( 0) 
7•3( 3) 
57-9(22) 
0.0( 0) 
0 . 0 ( 0) 
0.0( 0) 
7-9( 3) 
54.5(18) 
0.0( 0) 
0.0( 0) 
0.0( 0) 
3-0( 1) 
Total 
100.0(44) 
100.0(68) 
99-9(52) 
100.0(41) 
100.1(38) 
99-9(33) 
* Some of these nests may 
have been 
abandoned 
first. 
3- Factors Influencing Distribution and Abundance of Pheasants W. L. Anderson 
Findings during the spring and summer of I 965 suggest that pheasants on the 
experimental release area at Bellmont declined to drastically low numbers during 
the past year. In October 1964, the population wao estimated, using the Lincoln 
Index, to contain 239 (138 cocks and 10l hens) pheasants. However, only 21 
territorial cocks were located on the area during May l965. Although an actual 
estimate of the hen segment of the breeding population was not obtained in I965, 
sex ratios among pheasants observed during early March (7 cocks : 7 hens), and 
during April and May (31 cocks : 10 hens) suggest tha-» hens were no more abundant 
on the area than cocks. These data indicate that not more than 18 percent of the 
239 pheasants present on the area in October 1964 survived to the following May. 
Similarly, the number of individual broods located on the area decreased from 52 
in 1964 to only 11 in 1 965 > a reduction of 79 percent. Therefore, it is concluded 
that the pheasant population on the Bellmont Area has declined to so few birds 
that recovery of the population seems highly improbable. 
4. Responses of Bobwhites to Habitat Manipulation 
J. A. Ellis, R. L. Westemeier 
Measurement of the spatial relationships among quail coveys is one way to 
gauge the effectiveness of management practices in creating patterns of uniform 
habitat distribution (Monthly Wildlife Research Letters, May and June, 1964). An 
R value serves as a quantitative measure of the degree to which the observed 
distribution departs from random expectation with respect to the distance to 
nearest neighbor. 
The R values listed in Table 2 illustrate the general inferiority of the 
quail habitat on the Alma Area as compared with the two state areas (Forbes and 
