PUBLIC DOCUMENT No. 25. 49 



From time to time we are urged to close the season on 

 pheasants. To this we are inclined to say that these birds were 

 put into our covers primarily as a game bird; that their 

 numbers can always be increased by the expenditure of money; 

 and that they can be bred with reasonable ease. This cannot 

 be said of our native game birds. Moreover, they direct a 

 great amount of hunting away from the native game birds which 

 furnish good sport. 



MALLARD DUCK. 



The beautiful mallard duck lends itself readily to artificial 

 propagation, and is proving a great attraction at the game 

 farms. By liberating these birds we are offering a new sport- 

 ing proposition to the gunners of the State, since these ducks 

 in certain localities do not migrate. Not only in them- 

 selves are they a benefit, but they are of value in attracting the 

 black duck to these places. Each bird when liberated has an 

 aluminum or brass tag placed on its leg bearing a number. 

 Every hunter who kills one of these tagged birds will confer a 

 favor upon the Commission by reporting the number on the 

 tag, date, sex and locality where shot, together with other facts 

 of interest concerning the condition and weight of the bird. 

 Last May a pair of wild black ducks nested in the Boston 

 Public Gardens, and reared five young. There are thousands 

 of acres of marsh and swamp land which should be the breed- 

 ing grounds for these birds. They too need protection from 

 their natural enemies, two of the most deadly of which are 

 muskrats and large turtles. We urge all persons who receive 

 the young ducks not to feed them, but to place them in suitable 

 natural cover and let them shift for themselves. This will 

 develop their wild instincts which are not as strong as is the 

 case with young quail and pheasants when liberated. 



HEATH HEN. 



The Commissioners are continuing to guard with care the 

 only colony of these birds in existence. The work consists in 

 planting enough crops to afford sufficient winter feed, patroling 

 the reservation against poachers, and in keeping up an endless 

 warfare against vermin, the most troublesome of which is the 



