\oo 



^^ 



these birds may he carried on l)y woiiicu and cliildren, and to those 

 properly equipped, should bring a profitable income on time and 

 capital. The pheasant crop of England is an exceedingly impor- 

 tant one, not alone from the money value derived from the sale of 

 the birds, both at home and abroad, but particularly in controlling 

 gypsy and brown-tail moths, army worms and other pests which 

 have devastated large areas where the bird population was ab- 

 normally deficient. 



RINGNECK VERSUS QUAIL AND GROUSE.— The belief that 

 the ringneck will drive out quail and ruffed grouse will probably never 

 quite die out, but I have investigated carefully every such report that has 

 come to my attention within recent years and have yet to find one that 

 would hold water. Within the past year I was told that ringnecks on the 

 island on which the United States arsenal at Rock Island, Illinois, is lo- 

 cated furnished conclusive evidence of the driving out of quail by ringnecks. 

 A letter to the commanding officer at the arsenal brought forth a detailed 

 and interesting reply which was published in full in the July, 1915, number 

 of the BULLETIN of the American Game Protective Association. This 

 gentleman, Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Burr, a thorough sportsman 

 and keen observer, stated that the quail on the island had greatly diminished 

 in numbers in recent years and that during that period the ringneck had 

 increased, but he found himself unable to conclude that the quail had fled 

 before the attacks of the pheasants. 



COLONEL BURR'S CONCLUSION.— The situation was summed 

 up by him in the following words: 



I am inclined to regard the increase of the pheasants and the 

 diminution of the quail as a coincidence and not as cause and effect. 



My personal opinion is that the quail leave the island more 

 readily than do the pheasants, and to me the statement is rather 

 plausible that they may prefer to live some place where they do not 

 have to share their feeding grounds with the pheasants, but that 

 there is any real antagonism between the two species or that the 

 pheasants in any way actively drive away the quail, I do not believe. 



MASSACHUSETTS' EXPERIENCE.— The Massachusetts Com- 

 missioners have this to say on the relation of the ringneck to grouse and 

 quail: 



Many verbal complaints have been made relative to damage 

 to quail and to ruffed grouse, but almost invariably they take the 

 form of the statement that 'before the pheasants became so numer- 

 ous we had large flocks of quail and partridge feeding on our grounds 

 through the winter months. The pheasants, however, have driven 



