NATu^AL I'iioT" ;7 r "IY 
SEP 1 0 1568 
) 
f 
MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Departnent of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
August, 1968 
Vo I. 11, No. 8 
E2fiuJaU?ns and Land Use S. L. Etter, R. E. Greenberg 
e f.. ir i *" **968, portions of nine harvested hayfields on the Sibley 
h ^ ea COm F r 1 siog a total of approximately 48 acres--were searched for 
n f Searches of these sample plots resulted in the location of 64 
o w ic 3 (£0 percent) were successful. Comparison of these data with 
1 • fate j ^ P ercent ) a l 1 nests found in harvested hay during the years 
. • , * n ,ca ^ e that nest success in harvested hay in I 968 was considerably 
higher than normal. y 
^, a high success rate of nests in harvested hay and the con- 
t i-- Uen Y ower rate of hen loss due to hay mowing, pheasant production during 
the nesting season of l 968 was considerably above average. 
Manipuiation of Pheasant Habitat 
G. B. Joselyn 
a rr 0 \°! n r tleS pheasant nests in 1968 on seeded roadside plots ( 2.0 nests per 
1 D ,° n mana 9 ed control roadside plots (1.4 nests per acre) represented the 
es o nest establishment on both types of plots during any of the past 
ye rs . ates of nest establishment on seeded roadsides have varied from a low 
acrr!n U lo^ th n S ° f 2 *' neStS per acre in 1967 to a hi 9 h of 3-8 nests per 
Jnr . ° n managed contro1 P^ts, nest densities have decreased each year 
' I f 3 : When 2 ; 8 " ests per acre were established. The establishment rate 
for managed control plots was 1.6 nests per acre in 1967 . 
Over the 6-year period, 306 nests have been established on seeded plots 
per acre) S ^ 3Cre ’ cornpared with 208 nests on managed control plots (1.8 nests 
3. 
—-■ t ' 0rs .Influencing Distribution and Abundance of Pheasants 
W. L. Anderson , 
D. R. Vance 
Eleven adult hen pheasants of game-farm stock were caged individually and 
examine ai y from June to December, I 967 , to determine more precisely the 
iming o t e postnuptial molt of the primary feathers. The mean number of days 
e ween mo ting of successive primaries on the same wing generally increased as 
e mo t progressed from the first (innermost) primary to the 10th (outermost) 
/ He ° Ver f H mean n ^ber of days between molting of successive primaries 
, ' ays> Wl * : a ran 9 e 7-5 to 12.9 days. This closely approximated the 
established for juvenile pheasants, further substantiating the close 
. '? ns ' p e ^ ween the postnuptial molt of adult hens and the postjuvenile molt 
of their chicks. 
It was also discovered that these hens tended to 
molt their left primaries 
