4. Responses of Bobwhites to Habitat Man ipu 1 at ion J. A. Ellis, K. P. Thomas 
The harvest resulting from a management program is a criterion for evalu¬ 
ating the effect of the program. During the hunting season in 196? on Forbes, 
54.8 quail per 100 acres were harvested on the experimental management zone. 
This harvest figure represented an increase of 80 percent over the harvest 
of 1966. On the remainder of the Forbes Area, 13.4 quail per 100 acres were 
harvested in 1967, an increase of 72 percent over 1966 . Hunting effort (gun- 
hours) on the experimental management zone in 1967 increased 74 percent over 
the effort expended in I 966 . On the remainder of the Forbes Area, hunting 
effort in I 967 increased 94 percent over that of 1966 . 
On the Dale Area, 35-8 quail per 100 acres were harvested on the experi¬ 
mental management zone in 1967, an increase of 118 percent over 1966. On 
the remainder of the Dale Area, 18.2 quail per 100 acres were harvested, a 
decrease of 11 percent from 1 966 . Hunting effort on the experimental manage¬ 
ment zone was similar to that on the remainder of the area in both 1966 and 
I 967 . Thus, harvests on the Dale and Forbes areas were reflections of the 
difference in the quality and quantity of quail habitat on the experimental 
management zones compared with that on the remainder of the areas. 
5. Responses of Prairie Chickens to Habitat Manipu1 ation R. L. Westemeier 
Leasing of nesting cover on private farmland for prairie chickens has 
cost from $10.00 to $30.00 per acre per year. Such expense cannot be justi¬ 
fied except as a stopgap measure to provide critically needed nesting cover 
until it can be provided on permanent sanctuaries. The types of cover availa¬ 
ble for leasing have also constituted a problem confronting effective leasing. 
In 1963 only three prairie chicken nests were found by systematic search¬ 
ing in 234 acres leased on the Bogota Study Area by the Illinois Department 
of Conservation. The primary type of cover leased in 1963 was red clover. 
By contrast, in 1967, 85 acres of leased grassland produced four known nests 
(found by searching) and a probable minimum of four other nests--based on 
observations of hens during the spring booming season, subsequent observations 
of broods, or both. Booming activities were noted within 1/4 mile of each 
of the five leased tracts in 1967 . Cover types leased in 1 967 included two 
timothy seed meadows (36 acres), one redtop seed meadow (21 acres), one 
mixed stand of undisturbed redtop and timothy (23 acres), and a 5 - acre patch 
of mixed wheat stubble-timothy-red clover. Thus, it can be concluded that 
when grassy cover types are available for leasing in areas of high tradition¬ 
al use by prairie chickens, leasing can be justified on a temporary, short¬ 
term basis. 
6. Rabbit Management J. A. Bailey, J. C. Hanson 
During the past 4 years cottontails have been collected from the 
University of Illinois farms near Urbana in order to compare the adrenal 
weights of these wild rabbits with those of rabbits experimentally stressed 
in cages or crowded pens. The wild rabbits have been collected by either 
live-trapping or by hunting during the evening. Adrenal weights are usually 
expressed on a relative-to-body-weight basis, and it was hypothesized that 
