Vol . 11, No. 7 
Page 4 
October 1967 to provide a booming ground, leaving essentially no residual cover for 
the successful nest found in the field in 1968. The 18-acre field of weedy legumes 
was mowed for weed control in 1967 to a height of 3 inches, in compliance with the 
Federal Feed Grain Program. Cover height in this field was probably about 6 inches 
at the time of nest establishment in 1968. 
Nest densities in the above mowed fields equal or exceed the densities of nests 
found, so far, this summer in adjacent cover types--undisturbed redtop ( Agros Us. 
alba), timothy, weedy legumes or grass seed meadows, or cover appearing after the 
late-winter burns in 1 968 . The data presented indicate that (1) light layers of 
duff on the ground, (2) relatively short residual cover, and perhaps (3) rapid 
growth of the vegetation during the egg-laying and incubation period are among the 
important factors influencing nest-site selection by prairie chicken hens. 
6 . Rabbi t Management A.- Bailey, K. P. Thomas 
Studies of nutrition of cottontail rabbits and of domestic rabbits ( Oryctolaqus 
cuniculus ) have indicated that their digestive capacities are similar. 
(1) Young cottontails starved when fed bluegrass exclusively, during summer 
(Monthly Wildlife Research Letter 8(8) :4). In literature common to agriculturists 
and nutritionists, there are at least two reports of feeding trials in which 
domestic rabbits either died or lost weight on diets of bluegrass. 
(2) In a study of reingestion, adult cottontails produced soft food pellets 
amounting to 30 percent of the total weight of both soft and hard pellets (MWRL 10 
(8):3). This result was not significantly different from results obtained with 
domestic rabbits, as reported in two studies in the Journal of Nutrition. 
(3) The abilities of six adult cottontails, weighing between 800 and 1,325 
grams, to digest Purina Rabbit Chow were measured during January 1967- Quantities 
of food ingested and of feces produced (oven-dry weights) were determined during 
6 days for three of the animals and during 3 days for the others. Coefficients of 
digestibility for dry matter in the feed were 66, 67, 71, 65, 63 , and 70 percent 
for the six animals, respectively. The average digestibility, 67 percent, is 
comparable to the coefficient of 68 percent obtained for the same feed with domestic 
rabbits, as reported in the Journal of Agricultural Research . 
These similarities between cottontails and domestic rabbits indicate the need 
for cognizance of literature that is seldom referred To in wildlife journals. 
Several reports in wildlife literature have stressed the importance of bluegrass as 
a cottontail food. None of th se reports have used the above-mentioned literature— 
outside wildlife journals—to question the value of bluegrass to cottontails. 
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