Pheasants and Hungarians 



129 



the vigor of both wild and captive birds in the zone of success could be increased 

 by giving them more of what they need, rather than merely enough to permit 

 survival. 



There is another set of phenomena, ordinarily ascribed to inbreeding of game 

 birds, which may in the end prove to be phenomena of nutrition. The empirical 

 conclusion that inbreeding is injurious comes largely from experience with 

 pheasants and Hungarians in England, where one or possibly both species are 

 not indigenous, and where a greater or less degree of nutritional deficiency may 

 be expected to prevail, but to be temporarily abated by the admixture of stock 

 carrying reserves from more favorable environments. 



In short, the nutritional hypothesis is of great potential import, both to 

 science and game management. 



MANAGEMENT OF EXOTICS 



Open Seasons. All sportsmen are interested in the time interval which 

 must elapse between the first plantings of a new game bird and the first open 

 season when it can be hunted. Table 25 presents the elapsed time for the north 

 central region. 



TABLE 25. Elapsed time, pheasants 

 (Legend: c = cocks, ph = pheasants, x = not applicable) 



1 One previous year, 1910, was open for 45 days. 



2 The statutes show a 3-months open season "under permit" from 1909-14. The mean- 

 ing of this is unknown. 



Minnesota and Ohio appear to have started shooting two or three years 

 after plantings began, but this apparently short interval is believed to be due to 

 lack of records of date of the first plantings (see Map 10). There undoubtedly 

 were earlier plantings in both States, records of which were not found by the 

 survey. Moreover in the case of Minnesota, a drift of pheasants probably en- 

 tered the State from Iowa before the plantings began, and possibly from South 

 Dakota also. 



The probability that the planting records are incomplete is further strength- 

 ened by the fact that Illinois had an open season on pheasants "under permit" 



