Vol. 12, No. 8 
Page 2 
33 (3):714-717). By plotting the measurements on a graph, Wishart was able to 
separate juveniles from adults by drawing diagonal lines through the point 3*02 mm 
and 157 mm for hens, and the point 3*30 mm and 170 mm for cocks. Adults had the 
larger feathers. The technique was 97 percent accurate for both sexes. 
Because wings, as well as other body parts, from pheasants collected in Illinois 
during the past 3 years had been saved and kept frozen, it was possible to test the 
reliability of Wishart's technique for determining the age of pheasants in this 
state. Sixty-eight hens and 34 cocks collected during fall and winter were used; 
these pheasants were previously aged by probing the bursae and by examining the 
gonads. It was found that 66 (97 percent) of the hens and all 34 of the cocks could 
be correctly aged by measuring the first primary. However, the line of separation 
between juvenile hens and adult hens passed diagonally through the point 2.98 mm and 
153 mm, which is slightly lower than the separation point Wishart gave for hens in 
Alberta. The separation point for determining the age of Illinois cocks did not 
differ appreciably from the point Wishart gave for cocks in Alberta. As this tech¬ 
nique for determining the age of pheasants is reliable during spring and early 
summer--when the bursal-depth technique is not--it should open the doors to con¬ 
siderable new knowledge of pheasant biology. 
4. Responses of Bobwhites to Habitat Manipulation J. A. Ellis, 
P. J. Matthews 
The mean weight of 254 (21 percent) of 1,199 quail harvested on the Forbes Area 
from 1966 to 1968 was 180+16 g. Mean weights of harvested quail varied, among years, 
from 174 g in 1 967 to 184 g in 1 968 . Also, the mean weights of birds harvested on 
the experimental management zone (Zone 1) were consistently lighter than those of 
quail harvested on the remainder of the park. The greatest discrepancy in mean 
weights of quail from Zone I, compared with the mean weights of quail from the 
remainder of the park, was 14 g in 1967* In 1968 , however, this discrepancy was 
only 1 g. 
No correlation was found between the prehunt population densities and the mean 
weights of harvested quail for the years 1966 - 68 - 
5* Responses of Prairie Chickens to Habitat Manipulation R. L. Westemeier 
The increased population of prairie chickens present on the Bogota Study Area in 
1969 probably resulted from successful nesting in I 968 , made possible by ( 1 ) a sub¬ 
stantial acreage of sanctuaries located in strategic areas and ( 2 ) relatively early 
spring plowing, which gave nesting hens few alternatives but to nest on the sanctu¬ 
aries. Only two nests were reportedly destroyed by plowing in 1 968 . By contrast, 18 
nests were destroyed by farming activities in 1964 and a subsequent decline of 35 
percent was recorded for the Bogota flock in 1965* Fourteen (78 percent) of the 18 
nests found on the sanctuaries during the summer of 1 968 had successfully hatched. 
As of August 19, 1969* 22 prairie chicken nests had been found on sanctuaries at 
Bogota, of which 14 (64 percent) were hatched nests. Because of wet conditions in 
1969, plowing was delayed until after the peak of hatch in several key fields of 
wheat stubble-legumes on private farmland. Correspondingly, no nests were reportedly 
destroyed by farming activities in 1969- Thus, with 2 consecutive years of rela¬ 
tively good nesting success, it is hoped that a second increase in the population 
level of the Bogota flock is in the making. 
