66 REPORT OF STATI-: BOARD OF FTSTT COIMMTSSIOXERS. 



nuitual advantage to the different sections of the country to make lib- 

 eral exchanges. We therefore recommend that tliis law should not be 

 changed. 



IMPORTATION OF GAME BIRDS. 



Our means have at no time permitted us to take up seriously the 

 introduction of any new species. The Mongolian pheasants that were 

 introduced a number of years ago show a slight increase in certain 

 favored sections of the State, particularly in Santa Clara County, due, in 

 our opinion, to the splendid sentiment that exists among the people of 

 that county to protect and preserve their game, and to enforce the laws. 

 Favorable reports come from Fresno, Humboldt, Santa Cruz, and Kern 

 counties. A number of our citizens have become interested in the sub- 

 ject and are raising birds in captivity, liberating the surplus and dis- 

 tributing others among their neighl)ors. A great many permits have 

 l)een issued in the past two years for the transportation of these birds 

 in pairs or trios to different sections of the State, to be used as 

 breeders. 



Efforts were again made to secure pheasants direct from China, but 

 we learned that the steamers plying between the principal Asiatic ports 

 and those of Europe have made the pheasant an important item on 

 their bills of fare, which has largely increased the demand, with the 

 result that they are not found in any numbers except at points 

 remote from the seaboard. This has increased their cost to such an 

 extent that they are quite beyond our means. 



W^e believe that the bobwhite quail of the East, if properly placed, 

 would adapt themselves to the conditions of this State. This work has 

 never been undertaken by the State Board, but small shipments were 

 secured by private individuals, though not in sufficient numbers, in our 

 opinion, to make a fair test. We have been in correspondence for some 

 time with the principal breeders in the East, and have been offering an 

 even exchange for valley quail. Charles Payne, of Wichita, Kan., who 

 is most successful in handling these birds, and who has perhaps shipped 

 a larger number than any one else in the United States, quotes us his 

 price at $10 per dozen. We are expecting this fall to secure a number 

 of them in exchange for such valley quail as he may require, paying 

 the difference in cash out of our funds. It is our intention to place 

 these birds in considerable numbers in one or two selected localities, 

 where they would have absolute protection, and from which the ground 

 vermin have been driven or exterminated. 



During the summer of 1903, we secured permission, through Dr. T. S. 

 Palmer. Assistant in Charge of Game Preservation, Biological Survey at 

 Washington, D. C, to have transported from Alaska, to this State, fifty 

 pairs of ptarmigan, believing that they would find a suitable habitat 



