Vo 1. 9, No. 3 
Page 3 
Table 2. Numbers of pheasant nests and of nests per acre on seeded, managed control, 
and unmanaged control roadside plots, Sibley Study Area, I 963 , 1964, and 1965* 
Number of 
Nests 
Number of 
Nests per 
Acre 
Managed 
Unmanaged 
Unmanaged 
Managed 
Unmanaged 
Unmanaged 
Year 
Seeded 
Control 
Control-A* 
Control-B 
Seeded 
Control 
Control-A 
Cont ro 1-B 
1963 
44 
41 
-- t 
2.9 
2.7 
— _ 
- - 
1964 
68 
38 
22 
32 
3.8 
2.2 
1 .1 
2.1 
1965 
52 
33 
24 
29 
2.6 
1 .6 
1.3 
1 .8 
Percent 
Change 
Percent 
Change 
1963 
to 
+35-3 
-7.3 
-- 
+28.9 
-18.5 
-- 
-- 
1964 
1964 
to 
-23-5 
-13.2 
+8.2 
-9-4 
-31 -6 
-27-3 
+15.4 
-14.3 
1965 
1963 
to 
+15.4 
-19.5 
-- 
-10.3 
-40.7 
-- 
-- 
1965 
* Unmanaged control-A: includes 32, 5 -mile plots randomly selected from that 
portion of the study area which lies more than 1 mile from the seeded and the 
managed control plots. Unmanaged control-B: includes 47, 1/8-mile plots which 
are part of 100 , 10 -acre plots searched each year to obtain information relative 
to the nesting ecology of the pheasant. Efforts were made to prevent mowing of 
managed control plots; no such efforts were made with regard to the unmanaged control 
p 1 ots. 
t Unmanaged control plots were not searched in 19&3- 
!n I 965 there was one more nest per acre on seeded plots than on the managed 
controls, and one more nest per acre than on the unmanaged controls (A and B plots 
combined). Analysis shows that the number of nests per acre on seeded plots 
increased 29 percent from 1 963 to 1964, but decreased nearly 32 percent from 1964 
to 1965; the change from I 963 to 1965 was a decrease of about 10 percent. Density 
of nests on managed control plots decreased 18.5 percent from 1963 to 1964, 27 
percent from 1964 to 1 365 , and nearly 41 percent from 1963 to 1 965 - An increase 
of 15 percent in the nest density along 32, 5 -mile unmanaged control-A plots 
between 1964 and 1 965 was offset by a decrease of slightly more than 14 percent 
along 47, 1/8-mile unmanaged control-B plots. 
Changes in the nest densities on the roadsides are attributed, at least in 
part, to changes in the pheasant population on the study area. Although not 
revealing the exact magnitude of population changes, aerial censuses and roadside 
counts both indicated a major decline in the breeding population from 1963 to 1965 - 
