They were not flying very high,as many of them hit telephone wires. 
None were seen to alight.The flight mst have covered a considerable 
front,since Hamilton heard it discussed in Yates City and Oak Hill, sev- 
eral miles away.These birds were said to have come beck during the same 
year,but not in any big or continuous flight.Luke Hurff,the localgame 
warden, thought the reason for the flight was that the chickens were af- 
ter some kind of insect which was abundant in the direction in which 
they were headed. 
Ahother in stance illustrating former migrations was related to me 
by Edward Runge some 20 years ago.Runge said it was customary for chick- 
en hunters to go every fall to North Hill Bluff on the outskirts of 
Burlington, Iowa,opposite Henderson County,Illinois.This bluff projects 
into the Mississippi River in such 4 way as to catch any Sureeee 
flight of birds along the river bottoms.Runge said that chickens flying 
southward along the bottoms would be unable to clear North Hill easily 
and would accordingly alight,where they feel easy prey to hunters.4 con- 
siderable number was killed there each fall by hunters who arrived at 
the proper dates. Runge was unable to remember the month in which this 
annual flight took place. 
Present Distribution and Abundance Map I shows an astonishing survival 
of chickens in Illinois.In a few instances the approvimate number of 
birds constituting individual remnants was obtained and is noted on the 
map.The remnants in and around Champaign County are all very small. 
I have the very eerche impression that there are at least as many 
chickens left in Illinois as there are in Minnesota,if sharptail be ex- 
cluded from the Minnesota estimate. There can be little question about 
the fact that there are a great many more chickens 1é¢ft in Illinois than 
in Iowa,and this in spite of the fact that Tllinois has had a short open 
season,since about 1915,whereas Iowa has been totally closed on chickens 
-35— 

