PRIVATE GAME PRESERVES 219 



to migrate with the larger wild flock. She has 

 mated with a Hutchins gander, and has succeeded 

 with her charms in enticing a Canadian gander 

 from his mate, to whom he had been faithful for 

 eight years ! 



We have liberated between 800 and 1,000 ring- 

 necked pheasants of our own raising each season, 

 and now expect to raise from 1,500 to 2,000 gray 

 mallards every season, for the market. Gray 

 mallards bring in the market from $3 to $3.50 per 

 pair and it costs from 75 cents to $1 to bring a 

 mallard to maturity. The eggs sell at from $15 

 to $20 per hundred. 



Pheasants are much more difficult to raise than 

 ducks, but enough could be sold each year to 

 decrease materially the cost of running the pre- 

 serve, provided the law of the state in which the 

 birds are raised permits the sale of hand-reared 

 game. The New York state law is excellent in this 

 respect, and other states should allow the sale of 

 hand-reared game, in order to encourage their 

 increase by artificial methods and create a new 

 industry. 



The overflow from private preserves nearly 

 always stocks the neighboring woods and fields, 

 affording excellent sport. The pheasant is largely 

 an insectivorous bird, preferring the open field and 

 the edge of the wooded areas to the dense woods, 

 and probably interferes very little with our native 

 ruffed grouse. He wanders far afield, however, 



