REPORT OF MONTANA FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 





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CHINESE PHEASANT 



Game Bird Distrihiitiofi a7id Propel iration 



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By Tlias. X. 3Iailo>v, ( liainiisni Slat<» Fisli and Oaim- < oniiiiission. 



Without doubt one of the most impoi'tant and 

 therefore popular things the State Fish and Game 

 Commission is and has been doing in the way of 

 propagation is the introduction and liberation 

 game birds in the State. This important 

 work was commenced in 191S, when about 

 30 dozer Gamble Quail and 4 dozen Ring- 

 necked Pheasants were purchased and lib- 

 erated in differ- 

 ent places in the 

 State. 



It is doubtful 

 whether the 

 quail did any 

 good, at least we 

 have no report 

 from any part of 

 the State where 

 they were liber- 

 ated that any of 



these birds are now hatching here. The Pheasants were sent to 

 Flathead County where Major M. D. Baldwin, then a member of the 

 Commission, took charge of them and liberated them in likely places in 

 the Flathead Valley. The climatic conditions of this beautiful and 

 fertile valley well suited these fine game birds and they have done 

 exceedingly well there. 



About the same time, or possibly even before this time, Mr. Marcus 

 Daly, who owns a large ranch in the Bitter Root Valley, near Hamilton, 

 imported a number of these birds and liberated them on his property. 

 For some reason or other, however, there seemed to be an over-pro- 

 duction of male birds in the Daly flock and they have not increased 

 so well as could be expected, though there are several hundred birds 

 now on his premises. 



In 1920, the Commission purchased 150 pair of Ringnecks from 

 Oregon, and these were sent to several sections in the State and the 

 reports we have been able to get on them are that they have done well, 

 especially those sent to Glasgow and Lewistown. 



In 1921, the Commission took up this phase of propagation work in 

 real earnest. At a meeting of the Commission held in January of 

 that year at Helena, the members of the Commission authorized the 

 purchase of 2.000 pairs of Hungarian Partridges. We were unable to get 

 the Hungarians, but the pheasants were purchased from the Benson 

 Pheasant Farm, at Silverton, Oregon. The Commission also, later in 

 the season, authorized the purchase of 5,000 pheasant eggs which were 

 sent to various part of the State and were hatched by willing and en- 

 thusiastic men and women who were anxious to stock their part of 

 the State with these very fine game birds. As far as can be ascer- 

 tained, about 500 birds were raised to maturity from these eggs and 

 later liberated near where they were hatched. 



When these eggs were first received, the Commission agreed, in ad- 

 dition to furnishing the eggs, to pay $2.00 per bird for each bird that 

 was raised to maturity and liberated; but after operating under this 

 plan for one year we found that we could easily dispose of 20.000 or 

 25.000 eggs, or more than all the eggs we could purchase, and have 



