DoGUNO sa UD BON SRW ii be’ DIN ag 
comments on the status of both the Chuck-wills-widow and Whip-poor-will 
(Caprimulgus vociferus) in that locality. Bjorklund (R. G. n.d. Annotated 
checklist of Birds of Mason County State Forest (now Sand Ridge) mimeo, III. 
Dept. Forestry) reported the latter as an abundant summer resident, but did 
not find the former species in 1972. 
Materials and Methods 
Censuses were conducted on 23 and 28 June, and 6 and 13 July, 1976. 
We listened from the campgrounds in the center part of the Forest until 
Whip-poor-wills were calling freely, 8:35 to 9:00 p.m. Then, roads each 
direction from the campground were driven. A 10-minute stop was made 
every 0.5 miles, and numbers and relative location of each bird was plotted. 
A total of 19 miles of roads was censused. We believe that 0.5 mile intervals 
and plotting locations resulted in minimal, if any overlap, thus a transect 
along the road sampled an area one-half mile on each side. Bird density was 
calculated only for the south half of the Forest for which we have the most 
complete data. 
Results 
We heard a total of 65 Whip-poor-wills on 15 stops for a density of 8.7 
birds per square mile (range 5 to 10) or one bird per 73 acres. A four-mile 
transect southeast of Bath, near the Sand Prairie-Scrub Oak Nature Preserve, 
produced a density of six birds per square mile. Thus, the relatively open, 
patchy, black oak forests here support high populations of this species. 
Only one Chuck-wills-widow was heard on the censuses. It was located 
approximately 0.4 miles south of the campground throughout the period. 
Thus, a well established population of this species apparently does not exist 
in the Forest at this time. Its presence, however, compliments larger popu- 
lations of Summer Tanager, Blue Grosbeak, Lark Sparrow, and an occa- 
sional Bewick’s Wren, all species of southern or western affinities, in the 
sand areas of Mason County. 
Acknowledgment 
We appreciate the help of Jane Lee and Tim Marquardt in conducting 
the censuses. 
—Dept. of Biological Sciences 
Illinois State University 
Normal, IL 61761 
eS ca ES A a aa A Fe A AeA Si Nia RE i AG OI TR eats 5 de Ch iar Hd teas ABMS ERS Hue ACS ad 
Why do men move so rapidly in doing harm to the environment and so 
slowly in protecting it? 
