THIRTIETH BIENNIAL REPORT 



93 



Receut checks on reproduction records oil pheasants, quail, and 

 partridges, show the average of pheasants and quail to be eight birds 

 for each female, while the average of the partridge is sixteen. This 

 is from checks made on broods of wild birds over a period of three 

 years in the state of Washington. 



For game farming, or domestic rearing, the partridge does not 

 come in the same class as quail and pheasants. This is due to a peculiar 

 habit of mating. Partridges are monogamous and the matings must 

 be mutual. In a measure this is also true of quail, but they are to 

 some extent pliable in this regard, and yet it may account for the 

 fact that some years quail do very well under a domestic condition 

 and other years the results are not so good. 



The best successes with partridges has been had where the birds 

 were liberated in an area that was suitable for them and they were 

 allowed to pair and rear their broods in their own way. Where suc- 

 cessful stockings have been made this has been the plan. Some success 



Fig 30. Ringr-necked pheasant breeding pens, Yountville Game Farm. 



has been had from hand-reared birds but it has always been limited 

 and in the end is more expensive than the other method. 



The importation of these fine game birds is only limited by the 

 numbers the native trappers are able to take. For the year 1928 it 

 is estimated by one importing firm that they will send to the United 

 States forty thousand of these birds. The price will range from $8.65 

 to $10 a pair f.o.b. New York. No program of conservation and 

 propagation is complete without the ring-neck pheasant and the Hun- 

 garian partridge. 



Sportsmen have varied ideas with reference to what should and 

 should not be propagated. Many have expressed a desire to have the 

 wild turkey added to the game bird list of California. Mr. George 

 O'Connor of San Francisco, has been an ardent advocate of this 

 idea, and at the start of this present season he made it possible for 



