UHURH HISTBRV SBRVtlf 
JUN 17 1968 
MONTHLY WILOLIFE RESEARCH LETTER LIBRARY 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois January, 1 968 Vol . II, No. 1 
1. Pheasant PopuI at ions and Land Use S. L. Etter 
During October and November of the years 1962-64, 1,239 juvenile cock pheasants 
were captured and tagged on the Sibley Study Area. The ages of these juvenile cocks 
were determined to the nearest week from the progress of the molt of the primary 
wing feathers. The indicated ages were used to backdate to the weeks of hatch. 
Of these fall-tagged juvenile cocks, 495 (40.0 percent) were shot during the 
hunting seasons following capture. The harvest rates for cocks hatched in late 
May and June (43-5 percent) and in July (40.5 percent) were nearly equal and did 
not differ statistically. The harvest rate for cocks hatched in August (23-9 per¬ 
cent) was considerably lower than those for cocks hatched earlier in the nesting 
season. 
The lower harvest rate for late-hatched cocks may be partially the result of 
the inability of hunters to distinguish young cocks with incomplete first-winter 
^ plumage from hens. A second possible cause for their lower harvest rate is that 
fewer of the late-hatched cocks, compared with cocks hatched earlier, survive 
from the time of trapping to the hunting season. 
2. Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat G. B- Joselyn 
During the summer of 1967 the 80 miles of roadside on the Ford County Manage¬ 
ment Unit were examined to determine their acreage and their potential for seeding 
to pheasant nesting cover. Roadsides ranged in width from 8 to 25 feet. Approxi¬ 
mately 61.2 of the 80 miles were designated for complete seeding (road edge to fence 
line). Eight miles were designated for partial seeding (either foreslope or back- 
slope only). Ten miles were found to consist of good stands of brome grass ( Bromus 
spp.) and thus will not be seeded. Three-quarters of a mile of roadside were 
eliminated from consideration because steep drainage ditches abutted on the road, 
which would make it impossible for planting machinery to operate. A total of 150-7 
acres are designated for seeding. 
Lists of farm operators within the area of the management unit were compiled 
and are now in the hands of Department of Conservation biologists; the farm operators 
will be contacted during February for permission to undertake the seedings dur ing 
August. Farmers will be requested not to mow seeded roadsides (as well as those 
left unseeded because of existing adequate pheasant nesting cover) until on or 
after July 31• The management unit includes 65 farm operators: 16 landowners, 46 
tenants, and 3 both tenants and owners. 
3 . Factors Inf1uencinq Distribution and Abundance of Pheasan _s W. L. Anderson 
In an earlier communique (Monthly Wildlife Research Letter 10(10) :2), it was 
