TRANSPLANTING AMERICAN GAME BIRDS. 



It was between the years 1885 and 1895 that the 

 greatest interest was felt in trying to restock the covers 

 of the Middle States with bobwhites imported from 

 the South. They were turned out in large numbers, 

 but, as I have said, did not increase the numbers of 

 local birds because it did not occur to sportsmen to stop 

 shooting. A few men paid for the birds in any locality, 

 and the general public turned out and killed them all, 

 very often without so much as saying "thank you" to 

 the men who had paid the bills. 



But bobwhite was not the only native bird which 

 sportsmen tried to introduce on the Atlantic Coast. 

 Efforts have been made at various times to introduce 

 the pinnated grouse of the Mississippi Valley to the 

 old home of the heath hen. This might easily have 

 been done, and could be done to-day, provided only the 

 birds were introduced into game refuges where abso- 

 lute protection would be assured them. The birds for- 

 merly submitted readily to confinement, bore railway 

 journeys well and speedily adapted themselves to new 

 conditions. 



While most of these attempts have been forgotten, 

 or remain only as tradition, we have fortunately a 

 record of one of them. This account is from the pen 

 of Mr. N. H. Bishop, well known a generation ago as 



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