- t/ft , 
MONTHLY WILDLIFE RESEARCH LETTER 
Department of Conservation and Natural History Survey, Cooperating 
Glen C. Sanderson and Helen C. Schultz, Editors 
Urbana, Illinois June, 1370 Vol. 13/ No. 6 
1. Pheasant Populations and Land Use S. L. Etter, 
R. E. Greenberg 
During the spring of I 563 , observations were made to investigate the 
hypothesis that adult hens begin nesting earlier than yearlings. Hens were 
usually observed, in plowed fields, as a harem accompanied by a cock. The 
"disappearance" of hens during i.ay was believed to be related to their leaving 
the harem at the onset of incubation. A total of 63 observations of Lack- 
tagged hens were obtained between April 16 and Hay 23* Birds had been 
captured during the fall of and marked with back tags color-coded by age- 
class. 
The proportion of Lack-tagged hens observed that were adults remained 
stable at 60 percent during the last 2 weeks of April and then declined 
gradually during i.ay. The proportion of adults had decreased to 50 percent 
of the back-tagged hens observed during the second week of Iiay and, by the 
last week, no back-tagged adult hens were seen. Analysis by linear regression 
revealed that the decline in the proportion of adult hens observed, by weeks, 
was statistically significant (jt = -3*>5> df = 5> P, f 0.05) during the spring 
of 1 >o 3. However, a check of data from past years (1 >o 6, 1>C3, and 1^52) 
revealed no such relationship, 
2» Manipulation of Pheasant Habitat 0. Joselyn 
Jn 1370 , the first search for pheasant nests on manipulated and on managed 
control plots along 3? miles of roadway on and near the Sibley Study Area was 
conducted during the period June I5-I5* Sixty nests were located on the plots, 
37 on seeded and 23 on managed control plots. This represents a sizable 
increase in the numbers of nests on both types of roadsides over the numbers 
of nests found during the first search in 1365 / when 22 nests were located on 
seeded plots and 13 on managed control plots* The first search in previous 
years produced the following results; I ,,60, 55 nests (seeded, 33; managed 
control, 23 ); l.,57, 52 nests (seeded, 30 ; managed control, 22 ); 1535, 70 nests 
(seeded, 44; managed control, 26 ); 1535/ 57 nests (seeded, 35; managed control, 
22 ); 1964, 05 nests (seeded, 52 ; managed control, 33); and 1563/ 50 nests 
(seeded, 40; managed control, 40). 
3 . Factors 1nf1uencinq Pistribution and Abundance of Pheasants W. L. Anderson 
|t was previously reported that^ of 32 chemical elements investigated, 
sodium Is the most likely element to be limiting the distribution and abundance 
of pheasants in Illinois (liWRL 13(2) ;2)« Sodium was the only element that was 
