Vo!. 8, No. 10 
Page 3 
3- Factors Influencing Distribution and Abundance o£ Pheasants W. L. Anderson 
Every fall a considerable number of pheasants shot during the hunting season 
are not recovered. This number includes some hens as well as cocks, although 
only the latter are legal game in Illinois. What happens to these crippled birds? 
Certainly many of them soon die, either directly or indirectly from the effects 
of the shot wounds. However, a significant number of the crippled birds survive; 
fluoroscopic examinations revealed that 24 percent of 153 cocks and 4 percent of’ 
661 hens captured in the better pheasant range in Illinois (Ford, Livingston, and 
McLean counties) during the winters (posthunt periods) of 1959-60 and I 96 O- 6 I 
carried lead shot. Although 63 percent of the "infected" pheasants carried only 
a single pellet, as many as 5 or 6 pellets were occasionally found in one bird. 
Comparative data indicated that mean weights of pheasants carrying shot were no 
less than mean weights of pheasants not carrying shot (Table 2). Therefore, it 
is tentatively concluded that the health of those crippled pheasants that survive 
the hunting season is not greatly impaired by the presence of lead shot in theif 
bod i es. 
Table 2. Comparisons of mean weights (in pounds) of pheasants carrying lead shot 
with mean weights of pheasants not carrying shot. The birds were captured by 
nightIighting in Ford, Livingston, and McLean counties during the winters (post¬ 
hunt periods) of 1959—60 and I 96 O- 6 I. Numbers of birds weighed are in parentheses 
"ns" indicates differences were not statistically significant at the 5 percent 
1evel. 
Sex and Age 
Carrying Shot 
Not Carrying Shot 
Calculated 
t-Values 
Reference 
t-Values 
Cocks 
Juveni1es 
2.72+0.06(27) 
2.7510.02(82) 
0.600 ns 
1 -982 
Adults 
2.96+0.08(10) 
2.9710.03(33) 
0.125 ns 
2.014 
Hens 
Juveniles 
2.03^0.04(14) 
2.01^0.01(349) 
0.400 ns 
1 .960 
Adu1ts 
2.1710.07(12) 
2.1710.01(283) 
0.000 ns 
1 .960 
4. Responses of Bobwhites to Habitat Manipulation 
J. A. Ellis, R. L. Westemeier 
Provision for night-roosting cover for quail is essential in any sound 
management plan for this species. The roosting behavior of quail from the onset 
of hatching in early summer until the breakup of coveys in late winter involves 
dose spatial associations among individuals of the group. Cover selected by 
quail for roosting can therefore be considered important to the welfare of the 
species. 
We have used the nightIighting technique to locate groups of roosting quail 
on Forbes during the fall months. In I 963 we searched 135 acres and located 8 
# different groups of quail. In 1964, 185 acres were searched, and 5 different 
