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MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois 
May, 1969 
Vo 1• 12, No. 5 
1. Pheasant Populations and Land Use S. L. Etter, R. E. Greenberg 
Roadside counts of pheasants on the Sibley Study Area on eight mornings 
during the period April 15~30 in 1968 and in 1969 recorded 18 percent e ^ er c , 
in 1989 than in 1968 . Index figures of 153 anc * '27 cocks were obtaine rom 
side observations in 1 968 and l9^9, respectively. The smaller number o coc 
present in I 969 apparently resulted from a higher proportionate 0 
during the hunting season of I 968 than during the hunting season of 9 /• 
sex ratios in 1 968 and I 969 were 45 and 37 cocks per 100 hens, respecti /e y. y 
using these figures, indices of 340 and 338 hens were calculated for 9 an . } 
respectively. These data indicate that the number of breeding hens th s yea-r 
essentially the same as that in 1968 . 
On the assumption that the above index figures show the same relationship to 
spring hen densities that was exhibited by hen indices and aerial censuses con 
in 1963 and I 965 , the indices for 1968 and 1969 represent breeding populations o 
approximately 35 hens per square mile. 
2. Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat 
G. B. Joselyn 
On May 20, personnel of the Department of Conservation and the Natura * s 0 ^ 
Survey inspected several of the roadsides on the Ford County Management Unit t a 
were seeded last summer to brome and alfalfa for pheasant nesting cover. Apperen y, 
the lack of adequate rainfall between the time or seeding and the end of^ t e n 9 
season has substantially retarded the development of the seedings (MWP.L 2(2). 
It appears, however, that on many roadsides a considerable amount of germination as 
occurred this spring, which indicates that good stands of the seeded species nay 
expected by the end of this growing season. This should be the case on a 9 r ^ a ^ er 
proportion of the roadsides than had been anticipated. Reseeding, where r>eede , 
will be undertaken in August. 
Because weeds will probably cause some problems this first summer of t e 
seedings, it will be suggested in a letter to cooperating farm operators that t ey 
mow their roadsides whenever they consider them to be unsightly. Mowing wi1 
harm the seedings and may even reduce weed competition with the seedings. It is 
hoped that by next summer the seedings will have attained an acceptable Bppc&rance 
and will be sufficiently free of weeds to preclude the need for mowing. 
3* Factor s [nfluencinq Distribution and Abundance of Phea sants W. L* Anderson, 
D. R. Vance 
A total of 53 calling cock pheasants were located on the Neoga release area by 
audiocensuses during early May I 969 . This count of breeding cocks was about the same 
