The Audubon Societies 



115 



is especially visible in the care and feeding 

 of animals. 



It seems to me that this idea opens vast 

 possibilities, and I beg every one who is 

 now reveling with a grateful heart in the 

 bird music of June, to aid in establishing 

 a Song Bird Reservation this summer, be 

 it of one acre or of one thousand. 



M. O. W. 



A Connecticut Game Preserve 



For a number of years past there has 

 been maintained in the town of Hampton, 

 in Windham county, Connecticut, a game 

 preserve, which has features of unusual in- 

 terest, not only for sportsmen but for all 

 concerned in bird protection. 



Obviously, a preserve which is to be a 

 useful agent in the work of game protection, 

 and is intended to make up in some degree 

 for the shortcomings of the game laws, must 

 be based upon less selfish motives than the 

 sportsman's preserve of the ordinary kind. 

 It must provide a refuge and suitable breed- 

 ing ground for the birds, and not simply 

 protect them from one man in order that 

 another may kill them. 



Such preserves are more often advocated 

 on paper than tried in reality, for they are 

 generally supposed to involve such large 

 outlay for land and maintenance and to 

 offer so little benefit in return, that they are 

 held to be far beyond ail possibility of at- 

 tainment. 



The preserve which is here described is 

 of interest, as it shows how far wrong this 

 assumption is, and how an almost ideal 

 game preserve, on a considerable scale, was 

 established through the efforts of one man, 

 Mr. E. Knight Sperry, of New Haven, 

 with so little difficulty and with an outlay 

 so insignificant that there is the best of hope 

 that it can and will be initiated elsewhere; 

 and with a degree of success that was far 

 in advance of the most sanguine of those 

 who watched the experiment. 



This preserve comprises between one and 

 two square miles of farm and woodland, and 

 includes a small stream. The ownership of 

 this property is distributed among seven or 

 eight people, who have granted Mr. Sperry 

 the right to preserve the game on their farms, 



on condition that he would not shoot there 

 himself, and would bear the expense of post- 

 ing the land with the necessary signs forbid- 

 ding hunting, and would stock the grounds 

 with birds. The land-owners, on their part, 

 agreed to do no shooting on their lands and 

 to allow no others to shoot there. As they 

 live on the farms they are able to enforce 

 this prohibition without much difficulty, and 

 the expense of watching the preserve is thus 

 practically nothing. 



The chief item of expense was to procure 

 and post the signs forbidding hunting. 

 These were stenciled upon boards one foot 

 square. About sixty signs were put up. 

 The cost of these is not recorded. 



Though there are a considerable number 

 of Partridges on the preserve, the principal 

 game birds are Quail. Each year about 

 two dozen of these birds, costing seven 

 or eight dollars for the lot, have been liber- 

 ated on the grounds. The birds have been 

 obtained from one of the northwestern 

 states, as southern birds do not endure the 

 climate well and either migrate or die off 

 during the winter. 



In order to be a success, a game preserve 

 must, first of all, provide food for the 

 birds, or they will not be able to remain 

 there. The natural resources of the land 

 are generally sufficient to support the birds 

 during the summer months, but in winter 

 the case is different, and if a large bird 

 population is to be supported with such 

 liberality that they will not be driven to 

 forage elsewhere, some additional food 

 supply must be provided at that season. 

 This has been done by planting each year 

 a couple of small patches of wheat or 

 buckwheat, which is left to go to seed, 

 and as the stalks of the plants project 

 above the snow in winter the birds are 

 able to find the food at all times and are 

 kept in good condition, even in the se- 

 verest weather. 



There have been no other expenses worth 

 mentioning. The total cost has been so 

 small, both for starting and keeping up 

 the work, that the sum necessary could 

 be raised without much difficulty by sub- 

 scription among the sportsmen of even 

 the smallest towns, if they could be con- 



