outer flight feathers of adults which show less wear than those 
of young birds (Sheldon, W., F. Greeley, and J. Kupa. 1958. 
Aging fall-shot American woodcock by primary wear. Jour. Wildl. 
Memt., 22:310-312). This method of age determination was used 
when the inner flight feathers were missing or badly damaged. 
Sex was determined from the outer three flight feathers, 
which are wider and longer in females (Blankenship, L. 1957. 
Investigations of the American woodcock in Michigan. Report 
No. 2123, Mich. Dept. Cons., 217 pp.). 
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 of each sex) to adult females in the hunting kill 
may be the most useful measure of reproductive success each 
year. 
The age and sex composition of the kill may not reflect 
the actual age and sex composition of the population, because 
shooting may result in killing a higher proportion of one age 
or sex than another. However, year-to-year comparisons of 
immatures per adult female provide a means of obtaining an 
index of changes in reproductive success. 
Weighting factors 
Since the number of wings received from each State and 
Province was not proportional to the kill in that State or 
Province, wing data for each year were adjusted so that age 
ratios from areas with the largest kills carried the most 
weight in the overall compilation. The average kill in 10 
States and Provinces from which data were available for the 
1959-61 hunting seasons was used for weighting. These areas 
accounted for 78 percent of the wings received each year. 
It was assumed that the weighted ratios from these wings 
were representative of the ratios in the continent-wide kill. 
hs 
