Method of Analysis 
Previous studies have indicated that woodcock probably 
are promiscuous during the breeding season. This means that 
a substantial loss of adult males could occur without adversely 
affecting annual production. Therefore, the ratio of young 
(immatures ) to adult females in the hunting kill may be the 
most useful measure of reproductive success each year. 
Year-to-year comparisons of immatures per adult female 
provided a means of obtaining an index of changes in repro- 
ductive success. The age and sex composition of the kill 
may not reflect the actual age and sex composition of the 
population. This is because population information was 
obtained from samples of shot woodcock, and shooting may 
result in a differential vulnerability of one age or sex. 
Weighting Factors 
It was difficult to determine the change in the number 
of immatures per adult female in the continental kill because 
the number of wings received from each State and Province’ was 
not proportional to the estimated kill in that State or Province. 
Therefore, wing data for each year were adjusted so that the 
age ratios from areas with the largest kills carried the most 
weight in the overall compilation. Kill estimates used for 
weighting were available for the 1960 hunting season from 
10 States and Provinces. These areas accounted for 81 percent 
of the wings received in 1960 and 78 percent in 1961. It was 
“assumed that the weighted ratios from these wings were repre- 
sentative of the ratios in the continent-wide kill. 
Results 
Table 3 shows the ratio of immatures per adult female 
‘for States and Provinces from which 100 or more wings were 
received each year. Also shown are the ratios of immatures 
per adult (adult males and females combined). 
The number of immatures per adult female in the kill 
varied among States and Provinces each year (as did the 
number of immatures per combined adults). There was little 
difference in the age ratios for wings received from Maine 
and New Brunswick, despite the fact that the number of wings 
from these areas declined greatly in 1961. Wing data and 
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