=^^ 



109 



problem of furnishing sport to the man of moderate means who cannot 

 spare much time from his business for indulgence in his favorite form of 

 recreation. 



Plans are underway whereby sportsmen situated as previously described 

 and farmers in surrounding territory wishing to take up pheasant breeding 

 may be brought together and individuals of either class who are interested 

 are invited to write the American Game Protective Association, Wool- 

 worth Building. 



If a per capita of only 30 birds was reared, each sportsman would be 

 afforded a very fair season of sport, and the figures given above could be 

 nearly halved. 



PRESERVES STOCK PUBLIC COVERS.— Wherever a large num- 

 ber of pheasants are raised and liberated, a considerable percentage of the 

 birds inevitably escape to covers to which the public have access. At the 

 Clove Valley Club the birds are bred in a large field surrounded by chicken 

 wire, and in the latter part of September and during the early part of 

 October, are caught and confined in aviaries. At this time, being nearly 

 full-grown, they no longer come to the hen mother, but return to the breed- 

 ing field only because of the protection and food which they find there. 

 A considerable proportion of these birds cannot be captured and when 

 frightened by attempts to trap them, they leave the breeding field and 

 never return. 



" I have frequently, when hunting covers to the east and west of the 

 club preserve flushed pheasants," said a member of the Clove Valley 

 Club recently, "and, with a view to ascertaining the conditions, have 

 questioned a good many of the farmers, for five or six miles north, south, 

 east and west of the preserve, and they have told me that since a year or 

 two after birds were released at our club, they have been fairly plentiful 

 within the radius mentioned. 



"I hunted over the preserves of the Club for some six or seven years 

 prior to the time when it released pheasants," he continued, and never saw 

 or heard of any pheasants upon its preserves up to that time. 



SPORTSMEN ATTRACTED FROM A DISTANCE.— "So plenti- 

 fully have the public covers been stocked from the club's overflow that one 

 man living in Clove Valley makes it his business during the fall to enter- 

 tain and take out hunters who shoot on the borders of the preserve. Among 

 those who enjoy this shooting are a number of New York City policemen. 



"Early in November I was in Poughkeepsie, on my way to Sullivan 

 County, when a farmer stepped up to my car and asked me where I was 

 going to shoot. I told him in Sullivan County. He said there was better 

 shooting nearby. I asked him where, and he said, 'off to the east over 



