36 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFOBNIA 



1910 I received a small shipment of Hungarian Partridges from the 

 Fish and Game Commission. I liberated these birds on the Haggin 

 Grant about eight miles from Sacramento. About a month after the 

 liberation I saw one male bird. This Avas the last seen of any of 

 them." Indeed, in the attempt to establish the Hungarian Partridge, 

 California has sacrificed over 3,500 birds costing over $3.50 each. 



A recent experiment under private auspices is that of King 

 Macomber who, in 1914, imported fifty pairs of Hungarian Partridges 

 and confined them on his ranch in San Benito County in a large out- 

 door aviary extending over about an acre of natural cover. Small 

 rodents Avere said to have destroyed the few eggs laid in 1915, but 

 several clutches of eggs are reported to have been deposited in 1916. 



In contrast with the failure to acclimatize this species in Cali- 

 fornia and also in several eastern states is its apparently successful 

 establishment in British Columbia. In 1915 an open season of one 

 month was declared, and a large number of birds was killed. Despite 

 the toll which is expected to be taken each year, it is thought that 

 the birds will continue to increase. 



Wild Turkey 



As long ago as 1877 turkeys {Meleagris gallopavo, subspecies?) 

 were introduced on Santa Cruz Island. This was done at the instance 

 of Judge J. D. Caton. The two male and four female birds which 

 were placed there produced sixty-one young the first year and 120 

 the second. It was reported that the birds gradually decreased in 

 size until the males which normally weighed eighteen pounds weighed 

 no more than six pounds (Caton, 1887, pp. 350-354). No recent 

 visitor to Santa Cruz Island has reported the presence of wild turkeys 

 there. 



In March, 1908, W. E. Van Slyke of San Bernardino was detailed 

 by the Fish and Game Commission to procure from Mexico as many 

 wild turkeys as could be obtained in four months. He delivered 22 

 turkeys and 11 ' ' chachalacas " at San Bernardino on June 15, 1908. 

 They were liberated in two places in the San Bernardino ]\Iountains 

 at an altitude of about 4,000 feet. Encouraging reports were received 

 from these plants, and a shipment of thirty young turkeys which 

 were raised at the State Game Farm was made to the same locality 

 in August, 1910 (Calif. Fish and Game Comm., 1910, p. 57). Never- 

 theless naturalists who visited these mountains in the summers of 

 1915 and 1916 failed to find any trace of turkeys. 



Mr. Van Slyke was engaged again in October, 1908, to procure 

 additional stock for breeding at the Game Farm. He shipped 26 

 birds, which cost close to fifty dollars each. Their high cost prohibited 



