Vol. 9, No. 6 
Page 6 
County) and northwest to an area near Loogootee (overlapping Fayette and Effingham 
Counties). Seventy-three of the 182 booming ground cocks extant in I 966 were 
distributed along this range — in contrast to the relatively isolated flock at 
Bogota numbering 41 cocks. 
Key features of the habitat in the Farina range include (1) a 300 acre farm 
under Federal Conservation Reserve contract until 1968, (2) several redtop seed 
meadows (near Loogootee), and ( 3 ) the wide strip of native prairie vegetation 
along the Illinois Central Railroad which extends through the center of the range. 
These are accidental bits of habitat. What is needed soon is an ecological 
pattern of nesting refuges 20-80 acres ( or larger) in size totaling at least 500- 
600 acres, deliberately managed to perpetuate the chicken population on the Farina 
range. 
As an initial step toward land management for prairie chickens in the Farina 
range, about 30 acres on the west side of Forbes State Park is scheduled to be 
seeded to grassy nesting cover in the fall of I 966 . This seeding is to be a 
sharecropping arrangement made cooperatively by the Illinois Department of 
Conservation and the Natural History Survey. 
6. Rabbit Management J. A. Bailey, R. J. Siglin 
Parathion, an organic-phosphate insecticide, may become widely used in 
controlling the alfalfa weevil (Hypera postica) , a pest which has recently entered 
southern Illinois. The effects of application of 0*5 pound of parathion per acre 
upon mammals in and around an alfalfa field on the Dixon Springs Agricultural 
Research Station in Pope County were evaluated during May, 1966. The field was 
sprayed from a truck. 
Two cottontail rabbits were held in an open pen in the field during and for 
two days after the spraying. Seven other rabbits, captured on the edge of the 
field, were equipped with collar-mounted radio transmitters and released. Their 
activity was monitored before and for 2 days after the parathion treatment. Ten 
pairs (all females) of white laboratory mice were placed in small cages which 
were distributed throughout the field an hour before treatment. The mice, having 
previously been conditioned to alfalfa feed, were fed alfalfa from the parathion- 
treated field while being observed for 2 days after treatment. Ten additional 
mice, also conditioned to alfalfa feed, were caged within a building and fed 
alfalfa from the sprayed field. 
Wild mice were live-trapped, toe-clipped and released in the experimental 
field and in a nearby control field prior to spraying. Unfortunately, the field 
selected as a control was sprayed with 1 pound of malathion (another organic 
phosphate, less toxic than parathion) per acre on the day following treatment of 
the experimental field. Mice were snap-trapped in both fields after treatment. 
All of the penned and radio-equipped rabbits and white mice survived the 
experiment. Results of pre- and post-treatment trapping of wild mice in the 
parathion-treated field and in the malathion-treated field were similar and did 
