670 



AiMERICAN FORESTRY 



the sports, such as hunting and so forth. This, therefore, 

 takes us one step further, for it intimates that skill is 

 required to secure a game bird. We ha\e then, two 

 requisites: it must be good to eat and it must require 

 skill to secure it. Ideally, the game bird is extremelv 

 wary and difhcult of approach, but when iiroperlv hunted, 



Photograph by G. C. Embody, Ithaca, Xcw York. 



A NEST OF THE RUFFED GROUSE 



Great fecundity and a faculty for avoiding its enemies are requirements of a 

 game bird. In this ruffed grouse nest are twenty eggs. 



it lies close and unseen by the hunter until tlushed and 

 then jumps with some startling noise and flies away 

 swiftly. Thus it requires, on the part of the hunter, 

 stealthiness, keenness, alertness, coolness, quickness, and 

 skill in the manipulation of the gun. Edibility is not a 

 sure prerogative in judging a game bird, for tastes differ; 

 fish-eating herons are relished by some people and a 

 man's appetite in time of stress would make even the 

 proverbial " boiled owl " taste good. The requirement of 

 skill is insufficient in itself, for some of our most valuable 

 insectivorous birds, such as the nighthawk or bullbat, 

 make very difficult targets for the gun. This, then, brings 

 up a third requirement: a game bird must not be more 

 valuable in some other capacity than as game, such, for 

 example, as a destroyer of insects or a beautiful songster. 

 The nighthawk just mentioned, the swallows, the robins, 

 and the meadow larks, which were formerly shot by 

 gunners in many parts of the country, are much more valu- 

 able as destroyers of insects than they are as food for 

 the table or as targets for the hunter. The herons, which 

 only occasionally are valuable as destroyers of insects and 

 often are destructive about fish ponds and trout streams, 

 add too much beauty to our streams and shores to be shot. 

 Their aesthetic value outweighs their value as game, par- 

 ticularly as they are not very good eating and require but 

 little skill in shooting. 



Another requisite of a game bird is that it must have 



a large reproductive capacity or a faculty for avoiding its 

 enemies so that it can withstand legitimate hunting without 

 serious diminution in its numbers. The greater the 

 returns in actual sport afforded for the number of birds 

 killed, the better is the game. Those birds which travel 

 in compact flocks, like the ducks and many of the shore- 

 birds, so that more than one can be killed with a single 

 discharge of the gun, are inferior in this respect to the 

 grouse, woodcock, or snipe which get up singly. To sum 

 up, then, the perfect game bird is one that is valuable as 

 food and of little value as a destroyer of vermin ; one that 



Photograph by C. A. Bailey, Geiieseo, Xeu' York. 



A FLOCK OF HEN PHEASANTS 



The ring-necked pheasant, a native of China, has been successfully introduced 

 into many parts of United States, and is a valuable supplement to the native 

 game. It satisfies all the requisites of the ideal game bird, except that it has 

 considerable value as a destroyer of insects, and the cock birds are so brilliantly 

 colored that they appeal strongly to the Eesthetic. 



is of little ssthetic value ; one that taxes the skill of the 

 sportsman to secure it, and one that is able to hold its 

 own against hunting and all its other enemies. Let us 

 see how well the various classes of birds withstand 

 this examination. 



First the Anatide, or waterfowl, including the brant, 

 wild ducks, geese, and swans. They are all, except per- 

 haps the swans, excellent eating and a valuable asset to 

 the national food supply. Secondly, it ordinarily takes 

 skill to secure them. Although they become tame and 

 unsuspicious where they are fed and protected, wherever 

 they are hunted they are extremely wary and they fly with 

 great swiftness. They are of relatively little value as 

 destroyers of insects, are ex^en destructive about oyster 

 beds and grain fields, and, with proper limitation to the 

 hunting, they can hold their own. In one respect, how- 

 ever, they are not ideal game birds because they travel in 

 flocks and frequently many can be brought down with a 

 single shot, or, where automatic and pump guns are 

 allowed, often a small flock can be wiped out at one 

 shooting. The laws of most states and Canada allow the 



