106 REPORT OF THE PISIT AXO GAME COMMISSION. 



Handicapped by a scant\- Iciiislative ai)|)r()i)riatioii that \va.s hope- 

 lessly inadequate, no one (l;ii-i(l liDpc to ever tinanee conservation work 

 upon a scale adequate to hamUc the numiiitude of the job. that even 

 then had made itself manifest to tliose wiiose lives are devoted to tliis 

 public .'^ervice. 



The hunting license was then a new, untried thin<>'; its po,s.sibilities 

 problematical, so much so that Senator 11. M. Willi.s, himself a southern 

 Californian. .'■ensing something of the local need proposed and indeed 

 (]id, i'oi" a time, succeed in limiting the use of revenues thereunder aris- 

 ing to the introduction and propagation of alien species of game. From 

 that early day to this, when conservation no longer asks support from 

 the general public, is indeed a far cry. But now that the sportsmen 

 have, througli an enlightened popular sentiment, come to consider their 

 hunting and angling licence investments as virtually a contribution to 

 the general good of game and fish, there has been a steady increase year 

 by year, not oidy from immigration, but internally as well. 



GAME CONDITIONS. 



Some years after the establishment of the hunting license the Fish 

 and Game Commission concluded, somewhat hastily, tliat propagation 

 of game birds and introduction of alien species did not pay. It was 

 then felt that careful conservation of indigenous species was more pro- 

 ductive tlinn experimenting with exotics. Whether that conclusion was 

 entirely sound has for some time appeared debatable. Increasing cul- 

 tivation involved changing conditions for game, development of water, 

 and different croijs. Hut of all developments questioning that conclu- 

 sion, nothing could have a more unsettling ett'ect than the phenomenal 

 success attendant upon the artificial propagation and introduction of 

 Chinese pheasants in the Owens Valley of Inyo County. This alone is 

 unquestionably worth every penny this state ever spent upon the prop- 

 agation of game; To such extended range and in such considerable 

 numbers have these traditional game birds of royalty increased that a 

 short open season with low bag limits is only a matter of time, meaning 

 thus the actual addition of these magnificent fowl to the alread.v lone; 

 list of California's game. Today, a hundred of them may be seen in 

 driving through the extent of their range in Owens Valley from the salt 

 lake to the foot of Long Valley, delighting the motor tourist with their 

 gorgeous display of coloring as they strut about the stubble fields 

 and run oi- fly across the road, quite tame, usually in pairs, but often 

 in considerable family parties. 



At present, a pbin made eight years ago by Commissioner Connell 

 for sending a well equipped expedition into southern and southeast- 

 ern Mexico in quest of the Grayson liob-wbite is held in abeyance await- 



