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first or all, said Game Division Chief Dick Cross, “pheasants are a polygamous species, with a ratio of one cock bird to each 7 hens or so being sufficient for satisfactory breeding. Therefore, an almost unlimited number of cock birds may be taken without any permanent effect on the population, much like the harvest of buck deer. Futhermore, a sex ratio of one to one during the breeding season has been found to lead to harassment of the hens during incubation and generally lowered production. Thus, a harvest of some cock birds may result in more and larger broods in the spring.”
The proposed season is also calculated to provide valuable Information on the distribution and abundance of pheasants' in the state. All birds would have to "V,i *•* checked like turkeys at regular ■ game checking stations, and this pg* will pinpoint where they were g killed plus give a count of those ; bagged. Pheasants have been stocked in three-fifths of Virginia’s counties at numerous % sites, and regular census techniques are not considered 7 adequate to keep up with the birds’ survival.
Sportsmen end game managers ■ alike hsve expressed concern about the number of hens that ! may be shot accidentally, but experience In other ‘states indicates that a relatively small V number of hens are actually killed In such a season. The cock bird* removed In the fall wUl make room tor more bens to be carried * through the winter, resulting in i greater number of nests in tlu
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