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Mo 1 . 11, No. 9 
Page 2 
3. Factors Inf 1uencinq Pistribut ion and Abundance of Pheasants W. 1. Anderson, 
D. R. Vance 
The following report is the abstract from a manuscript entitled, "Metabolic 
reserves and organ weights of pheasants from good, fair, and poor range in Illinois." 
Most of the information was reported "piecemeal" in previous Monthly Wildlife 
Research Letters (see issues for March 1967, April 1 967 , and April 1 968 )- 
Seventy-five hen pheasants (58 juveniles and 17 adults) were captured on areas 
located near Sibley (good range), near Humboldt (fair range), and near Neoga (poor 
range) during October and early November, 1966, January 1 967 , and February I 968 , 
and dissected. An additional 17 hens (all juveniles) were captured at Sibley and 
Humboldt during early November I 966 and January 1967, and experimentally starved. 
Hens from Neoga, when compared with hens from Sibley, had larger sternal muscles, 
leg muscles, ovaries, oviducts, and parathyroid glands, and smaller pancreases and 
adrenal glands (juveniles only). Hens from Humboldt exhibited fewer differences, 
having, on the average, larger sternal muscles, and smaller adrenal glands (juveniles 
only) than hens from Sibley. Mean weights of the entire body, fat strip, visceral 
fat, gizzards, hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs, spleens, thyroid glands, bursae, and 
thymus glands did not exhibit important area-to-area differences. The juvenile hens 
from Sibley that were experimentally starved survived an average of 8.8 days during 
November I 966 , and 11.7 days during January 1967* Juvenile hens from Humboldt 
survived 8-8 and II.5 days, respectively. The principle interpretations of these 
findings are: (I) pheasants in poor and in fair range possess quantities of meta- 
9 bolic reserves that are similar to, or greater than, those of birds in good range; 
( 2 ) juvenile pheasants in fair range are as capable as pheasants in good range of 
surviving the stresses of starvation; ( 3 ) if weights of adrenal glands are reliable 
indicators of stress, juvenile pheasants in poor and in fair range are stressed less 
than juveniles in good range; and (4) the enlarged parathyroid glands in birds from 
Neoga constitute clinical evidence that pheasants in poor range utilize less cal¬ 
cium than pheasants in fair and in good range. 
4. Responses of Bobwhites to Habitat Manipulation J. A. Ellis, P. J. Matthews 
We have used counts of whistling bobwhites along standardized routes on the 
Forbes and Dale areas for the period May I5-July 15 as indices of fall population 
densities (Monthly Wildlife Research Letter 10(9):2). The average number of calls 
rather than the average number of whistling cocks, per listening stop, has more 
accurately predicted the fall populations on both areas. 
For 1968 , the average number of calls per stop on Forbes (25*4) indicated 
that the fall population will be 32-7 quail per 100 acres. This population 
estimate was 25 percent greater than the population estimate obtained by the same 
method in 1 96 7• On Dale, the predicted prehunt population in 1 968 will be 33*4 
quail per 100 acres, compared with 38.4 quail per 100 acres in 1967* a decrease of 
13 percent. 
5* Responses of Prairie Chickens to Habitat Manipu1 at ion R. L. Westemeier 
\ The distribution of booming grounds, prairie chicken hens, and nests on the 
8ogota Study Area in I 968 indicates that the prairie chicken sanctuaries are now 
