THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
Ww 
Brackett favored, Ife had about an 
acre of backyard, no end of enthusiasm. and a 
He has a 
was 
small allowance from the state. 
magnificent showing for the investment. 
The original plant was a cage of earth work 
about 30 feet square, divided into pens, each 
of which was to be the home of a pair of breed- 
ing pheasants. Then came the getting of 
pheasants. 
The first shipment took as much diplomacy 
to encompass as would have settled the late 
Chinere war. Oregon and one other place 
were the only source of pheasants in this count- 
ry, 
statutes in Oregon against the exportation of 
A paitry half-dozen 
and last winter there were cast iron 
pheasants from the state. 
birds were secured from ‘‘the ether place” —no 
matter where it was- and the promise of 
Massachusetts game propagation, had an 
impetus but no more. 
The last Oregon Legislature however, passed 
a law permitting the exportation of a limited 
number of tirds for breeding purposes, to 
applicants who came with credentials from 
state commissioners. 
on the Oregon governor’s signature to the law, 
when an application was made on behalf of the 
The 
a flock of sixteen 
The ink was hardly dry 
Massachusetts commission, requisite 
warrants were issued and 
birds secured forthwith. 
What was a pen, must now -be enlarged to 
an aviary asa matter of course. The ample 
and umbrageous surroundings of the Brackett 
homestead offered the area, anda few dollars 
worth of wire netting did the rest. A whole 
orchard was enclosed. Pens for setting hens 
were built by the dozen. Additional cages 
were erected for the wild progenitors, for 
nothing with a hole in it will hold a chinese 
pheasant. Bantam hens had to be secured 
mothers for the coming broods and then — to 
There must be eggs, pheasants 
Hen laws and statutes avail 
as 
wait awhile: 
eggs of course. 
but little, and the new arrivals had to get over 
their fright at the eastern trip before they 
could be ezpected to carry out their part of the 
programme. Bantam hens must get the sitting 
craze before the chickens can be counted. But 
all things come to him who waits. Eggs and 
sedentary bantams arrived in due time, and a 
dozen broods have been started on their way 
to citizenship in the bird life in the common- 
The of 
perfect ground to run around-in; one that bas 
wealth, youngsters have an acre 
the varied prospect of the woodland. Trees, 
shrubbery, vines, clumps of Frake, just the sort 
of ground on which to train birds whose sole 
mission in life is to keep out of range, of the 
In all this there is a world of detail. 
The Mongolian pheasants are ‘wilder even 
than hawks.” 
gunner, 
The English pheasants at. the 
place will eat fromthe hand, but not so the 
untamed visitors, who are as wild now as in 
their native Oregon woods. They demand 
animal food, insects mainly, especially while 
young. Hard boiled eggs are the usual reli- 
ance in this emergency but Mr. Brackett has a 
Sink half 
way into the ground and piace three or four 
scheme that hears that, a_ barrel 
inches of bran in the bottom, Hang some 
liver on a stick across the top and cover the 
whole loosely and let it alone for afew days. 
The flies find the liver, lay their eggs in it and 
in a few days you will have fly grubs by the 
quart, wriggling, fat, white and juicy in the 
bran. All pheasant chicks cry for them, 
SOME OREGON MAMMALS. 
THE MOUNTAIN BOOMER. 
(Haplodon rufus.) 
The Beaver (Castor fiber.) has been lauded 
for centuries as the personification of industry 
and forethought but the Beaver’sclaim to these 
attiibutes fade into insignificance when compar- 
ed to this little busy worker of our mountain 
fastnesses. 
Short limbed; heavy bodied and entirely 
innocent of even an apology of a tail the 
‘‘Showt’l” or Mountain Boomer can lay no 
claim to personal beauty; yet no animal will so 
well repay the naturalist for time spent in the 
study of its life history- 
As a general thing Boomers live in small 
colonies in 
located those numerous damp 
mountain meadows just below the snow line of 
