- Q7 



J^\y>. C7 I 



the birds are weaned, when the hen is caught up and shipped back to 

 the farm. Superintendent Rogers is well pleased at the outcome of 

 this experiment. 



In New York pheasant eggs are distributed on application in the 

 spring. As stated in Chapter I, some sportsmen's clubs pay farm- 

 ers to incubate eggs thus obtained and, in addition, many farmers apply 

 for eggs on their own responsibility, some for the pleasure of seeing the 

 birds on their land and some because of the pheasant's value as an insect 

 destroyer. 



WASHINGTON PLAN MERITS SERIOUS CONSIDER ATION.- 



The State of Washington has adopted a method of raising revenue for 

 sport, breeding game and stocking covers which merits the serious atten- 

 tion of the entire country. Briefly stated, most of the revenue derived 

 from the sale of hunting licenses accrues to the county from which it 

 comes and is disbursed by a county game commission. In other words, 

 the county rather than the state is the unit for the administration of mat- 

 ters relating to game. Again, these county commissions are clothed with 

 power to establish game farms and to set aside by proclamation as many 

 areas as they choose as game preserves. Let Mr. H. Rief, secretary of the 

 Game Commission for King County, Washington, tell the rest of the story : 

 Game in this county, of which Seattle is the county seat, is in 

 the control of a commission which has established a game farm of 

 seventy-two acres and set aside by proclamation seven preserves 

 within the county of approximately 1,000 acres each on which 

 birds that we have reared on our farm this year have been liberated. 

 There will be no shooting on the preserves this year but the year 

 following they should furnish excellent sport. Meantime other 

 tracts will be set aside by proclamation and young birds placed upon 

 them in like manner. We place the birds on the .preserves when 

 they are approximately two months old, usually sending their 

 cochin bantam foster mother with them, and the brood is kept in 

 sight by a keeper till it is well established. 



GETTING YOUNG BIRDS SETTLED. We feed these birds 

 for the first month or so, or as long as they stay with the foster 

 mother. The hen is at first confined in a coop and the youngsters 

 allowed to run. After they become familiar with the place she is 

 permitted to go with the birds and each night they will return to 

 their roosting place, where they are fed and watered. When the 

 color feathers begin to show the chickens will abandon the hen. 

 She is then caught and returned to the game farm. We have had 

 wonderful success with this plan and the vigor of the birds thus 



