64 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



A great many of our people are raising pheasants and some quail. 

 Pheasants are also landed here from foreign countries under permits 

 from the Federal authorities at Washington, and while the letter of the 

 law forbids the sale of pheasants or quail, it is our contention that the 

 spirit of the law is to prevent the sale of any dead birds for market 

 purposes, but that permits should be freely issued for transferring the 

 birds from one party to another who desires to propagate them. It is 

 not reasonable to suppose that one would go to the expense of buying 

 birds in a foreign country, pay transportation charges across the sea, 

 and then give them away. In the past two years dozens of pheasants 

 have come in that have been disposed of by the dealers who imported 

 them, and many have been sold by people who raised them. In each 

 case to make a transfer, a permit was issued by this Board entitling the 

 party to hold the birds "for purposes of propagation, together with 

 their increase." We have followed the same plan with reference to 

 permits for trapping quail, but have granted no permits to dealers to 

 sell quail or pheasants. 



We have not the means nor the men to engage in the trapping of 

 quail, but when proper applications came to us from Eastern States for 

 a limited number (which has not been more than fifty birds, or four 

 dozen) we have issued a permit allowing them to be trapped, shipped 

 to San Francisco, and then properly crated and shipped East. In no 

 case have we issued a permit until first satisfied that the birds were to 

 be used solely for propagating or scientific purposes, and in that respect 

 we have issued permits for both quail and pheasants. 



IMPORTATION OF GAME BIRDS. 



Our means have not permitted us at any time to take up seriously the 

 introduction of new species, although special efforts were made to secure 

 some Hungarian partridges, a fine game bird which we believe is adapt- 

 able to the conditions in this State. We corresponded with bird dealers 

 in England and on the Continent, all of whom were willing enough to 

 promise us birds (at what seemed extravagant prices), but they were 

 not able to deliver them. We then took up the matter with game 

 importers in this country, and placed an order with Mr. C. Lincoln 

 Free, of Easton, Pa. Mr. Free is a member of the American Museum 

 of Natural History, and one of the most successful importers of wild 

 birds and animals, but he was unable to procure them. Finally Com- 

 missioner W. E. Gerber, while on an extended European trip, took up 

 the matter in person at Vienna, and after much correspondence and 

 trips to various points, even invoking the aid of the royal game- 

 keepers, he succeeded in getting together a shipment of fifty-four birds 

 and directed them to be sent to Sacramento. Owing to the fact that the 



