PRIVATE GAME PRESERVES 217 



to know this flock, which gradually increased to 

 four or five hundred, on account of their wariness 

 and would make no attempt either to stalk or decoy 

 them in their flight up and down the coast. 



Description of the Author's Game Preserve at 

 Norfolk, Connecticut. A brief description of a 

 preserve of 4,000 acres started three years ago by 

 Mr. S. W. Childs and the writer in the north- 

 western part of Connecticut may be of interest, to 

 show how quickly wild life responds to protection, 

 and to indicate some of the stumbling-blocks and 

 cardinal principles in the making of a preserve. 



As I sit here writing on the porch of a house 

 overlooking a typical Connecticut pond about 

 three-quarters of a mile long and half a mile wide, 

 a poodle pointer imported from Germany and an 

 English setter are standing by my side, quivering 

 with excitement as they watch eight ring-necked 

 pheasants feeding on a small piece of lawn a few 

 feet away. 



Canada geese are making a great uproar by the 

 shore of the pond below as they chase back and 

 forth, flapping their wings, apparently trying to 

 encourage their goslings, now at the end of August 

 nearly full grown, to rise and fly. 



Wild black mallards and wood-ducks that bred 

 this year on the place, and several hundred hand- 

 reared gray mallards, all able to fly, are to be seen 

 in the air and on the water, and a herd of fifteen 

 native Connecticut white-tailed deer, with four 



