AN EXHIBIT 'TO ENCOURAGE THE OTHERS" 



Crows are often a pest to game breeders, because of their 

 fondness for birds' eggs, and their tendency to destroy 

 young birds. Ahhough they do some good, the game 

 breeder usually regards them as more of liability than an 

 asset. A Connecticut farmer has killed a number of them 

 and hung them on a tree as a warning to their brethren. 

 From Job, "Propagation of Wild Birds." (Fig. 12.) 



"The demand for live pheasants from 

 the many that are beginning to breed 

 them is so great that there is an almost 

 unlimited market at present for them 

 alive. When this demand is finally 

 met, there is still an enormous field 

 for sale for food purposes as wild game." 



One of the difficulties which every 

 breeder has to face is the activity of 

 small animals which, however valuable 

 they may be from some other point of 

 view, are to the bird breeder merely 

 "vermin." 



WAR ON VERMIN 



"A popular fallacy," Mr. Job re- 

 marks, "is that all it is necessary to do 

 to increase bird life is to set apart a 

 tract of wild land as a refuge, and 

 prohibit trespass and shooting. At the 

 start there are probably few birds, and 

 after ten 3^ears there might not be any 

 more. One reason is that the average 



wild land abounds with destructive 

 vermin. Hawks and owls, which are 

 the principal natural check upon the 

 smaller mammals, have been so reduced 

 in numbers that rats and other vermin 

 abound. True they kill some birds, 

 but they eat more of the enemies of the 

 birds. Because we have upset the 

 balance of nature, we have to help 

 restore it by checking the abnormal 

 increase of vermin." Practical sugges- 

 tions for destroying these pests are given. 



But if the breeding of gallinaceous 

 birds offers no un.surmountable prob- 

 lems, waterfowl are still easier to rear, 

 according to the author. 



"The simpHcity of the keeping of 

 wildfowl is one of the delightful sur- 

 prises in store, though it must be borne 

 in mind that there will be failure unless 

 certain fundamental principles are car- 

 ried out. About all that is needed is a 

 Httle pond or brook, especially in a 



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