Vo 1. 9, No. 12 
Page 2 
3« Factors 1nf1uencing Distribution and Abundance of Pheasants 
W. L. Anderson 
There is a general consensus that the period of greatest stress for adult 
pheasants is during the molt, which occurs in late summer and early fall. During 
this period, body reserves are mobilized to provide nutrients for rapidly developing 
feathers and, in hens, for energies required for brooding and caring for chicks. 
The body weight of hen pheasants is at its annual low during the brooding and 
molting period (Monthly Wildlife Research Letter, November, 1966). 
The severity of the stress to which pheasants, as well as other birds, are 
subjected has long been associated with the degree of activity of the adrenal 
glands. The greater the adrenal activity, presumably the greater is the stress 
on the birds. However, the mean weight of adrenals excised from hen pheasants 
collected in Ford and Livingston counties in 1966 was less during the brooding and 
molting periods (47 mg) than during the three preceding periods: prenesting (5o 
mg), egg laying (55 mg), and egg incubating (53 tig). Also, and perhaps more 
important, the thymus, a lymphoid organ that is suppressed by adrenocortical 
s^'-reticn, dramatically increased during the brooding and molting period, the mean 
weight being 313 mg as compared with 52 , 13, and 26 mg, respectively, during the 
three preceding periods. These findings tentatively indicate that although hen 
pheasants are indeed at a low ebb with respect to metabolic reserves during the 
molt, they are not necessarily stressed--via the adrenaI--during this period. 
4. Responses of Bobwhites to Habitat Man?pu1 ation 
J. A. Ellis, K. P. Thomas 
The rate of capture of quail by the cock-and-hen trapping technique was 
apparently not an indicator of population abundance on the Dale and Forbes areas 
in the summers of I9&5 anc * 1966. On the Dale Area, 1.50 and 1.08 quai 1 were 
captured per trap day in 1965 and 1 966 , respectively. This difference in rates 
capture per trap day was statistically significant at the .05 level (X z = 6.21). 
On Forbes, however, 0.88 and 0.82 quail were captured per trap day in 1965 and 
1966, respectively. In contrast, whistle count data indicated that the number of 
whistling males was similar on the Dale Area in 1965 and 1966 and was four times 
greater on Forbes in I 966 than in 1965* 
The response of quail to the cock-and-hen trapping method during a particular 
summer apparently was associated with factors other than the numbers of males in 
the populations. Perhaps the late winter sex ratio determined the trap response 
by males during these 2 summers. 
5. Responses of Prai r ie Ch ickens to Habi tat Manipulation R. L. Westemeier 
During the fall of 1 966 an attempt was made to census the prairie chicken 
population on the Bogota Study Area by systematically checking the five booming 
grounds which were used during the preceding spring. Counts were made on 6 warm, 
clear, calm mornings during the first hour of daylight, at about weekly intervals, 
during the period from October 5 to November 17* 
Three of the five booming grounds used during the spring of 19^6 were found 
to be active during the fall of 1966. The total counts of prairie chickens for the 
