DEPARTMENT OP GAME AND FISHERIES No. 9 



northern Sudbury, Algoma (particularly the Chapleau Game Preserve), Lake Nipigon 

 section of Thunder Bay, and the Lake of the Woods section. 



ELK: — This species also is provided the protection of an entire close season. 

 The original herds were imported from Western Canada. In southern Ontario there 

 are a few specimens on the Bruce Peninsula and on Beausoliel Island in the 

 Georgian Bay, as well as on the Petawawa Crown Game Preserve in Renfrew County, 

 Their numbers in Northern Ontario are principally to be found within such Crown 

 Game Preserves as Nipissing, Burwash, Chapleau, Ranger Lake and Onaman River. 

 Some improvement is reported. 



BEAK: — These animals are reported to be quite plentiful in many sections, — 

 particularly in Northern Ontario, — as well as in the northern portion of Southern 

 Ontario. It would appear from reports to the Department that increasing numbers 

 of sportsmen, both resident and non-resident, participate in the sport which the 

 hunting of these animals provides. 



RABBITS: — The interested hunter knows that in Ontario excellent sport is 

 provided by the hunting of rabbits during the late fall and winter months. In the 

 southern counties the cottontail is quite plentiful practically throughout, though 

 reports indicate they are none too plentiful in some of the eastern sections. The 

 jack-rabbit or European hare is plentiful in the southwest as well as in some counties 

 to the north. It is found apparently as far east as Northumberland and north to 

 Bruce, Grey, Dufferin, Simcoe, Victoria and Peterborough. The snowshoe rabbit is avail- 

 able in the northern portion of Southern Ontario and in Northern Ontario, though condi- 

 tions as to the prevalence of this particular species vary considerably. In Parry Sound, 

 Muskoka, Haliburton and Renfrew while not too plentiful they are reported to be 

 increasing numerically, and somewhat similar conditions exist in sections throughout 

 the north. 



SQUIRREL (Black and Grey) :— These animals are reported to be quite pre- 

 valent in the southern and western counties. Sufficiently numerous to warrant the 

 provision of a limited open season and restricted catch. 



PARTRIDGE: — This season the hunter had an opportunity of taking this 

 fine sporting bird. The increase in numbers of the ruffed grouse justified an open 

 season which was divided into two parts to afford a wider enjoyment of the sport. 

 Sportsmen are more or less familiar with the cycle of abundance and scarcity which 

 appears to be one of the characteristics of the life history of this bird, and which 

 is one of the primary reasons why open seasons on partridge are not more numerous. 

 The species known as the prairie chicken, or sharp-tailed grouse, is found only in the 

 extreme north and west and their numbers were not too plentiful even in these 

 sections. 



QUAIL: — These birds inhabit only the extreme southwestern counties of 



Essex, Kent, Elgin, Lambton and Middlesex, from where reports are to the effect 



that conditions and prevalence are quite favorable. They are also reported, though 

 not plentiful, from Dundas, Stormont and Glengarry. 



PHEASANT: — These fine game birds are found chiefly in the areas in which 

 Departmental re-stocking has been provided, in the counties at the western end 

 of Lake Ontario and along the north shore of Lake Erie. The continued development 

 of the scheme of Regulated Game Preserve Areas, — that is the Townships in which 

 hunting is controlled, — necessitated an intensification of distribution. The distribution 

 of pheasant eggs was entirely eliminated and our efforts along these lines were 

 confined to the actual distribution of the birds themselves. During the year approxi- 

 mately 20,000 live pheasants were distributed, the greater proportion of which were 

 liberated in the forty-nine Townships included in the scheme of Regulated Game 

 Preserve Areas. 



