THE PROPAGATION OF GAME BIRDS 



In several European countries the supply of game both for sport 

 and for the table is furnished almost wholly by propagation. In Great 

 Britain, for instance, game covers are systematically restocked with 

 pheasants by breeding .these birds in large numbers and then liber- 

 ating them. Ducks are reared in large numbers and made to furnish 

 sport for the gunners. The consequence of this sort of game admin- 

 istration is that few persons are allowed the privilege of hunting, 

 and no public lands are open to the hunter at large. Even now, 

 in Scotland, the right to hunt is, theoretically at least, reserved to 

 persons who have inherited that unknown quantity, a "plowgate" of 

 land, and in Ireland qualifications of estate are necessary for killing 

 game and keeping sporting dogs. In Great Britain the right to take 

 or kill wild animals is treated as incidental to the ownership or 

 occupancy of land on which they are found, and the general public 

 has not the right to take them on private land or even on a right of 

 way. (For further discussion of conditions abroad, see Westerfeld, 

 1916, pp. 1-10.) 



In the United States, where all of the people have rights to game, 

 we have administered our game resources in an entirely different way. 

 Instead of increasing the breeding stock by artificial methods or by 

 large game preserves we have heretofore, where anything has been 

 done at all, simply encouraged the breeding of our game birds and 

 mammals under natural conditions. Little attention has been paid 

 to restocking depleted covers with birds reared in captivity, save as 

 concerned with the introduction of non-native species (p. 30). It may 

 be that as our supply diminishes we will be forced to turn seriously 

 toward artificial propagation as one means of replenishing game in 

 the wild. That an increasing number of individuals is becoming 

 interested in this phase of the subject and rearing game for profit or 

 pleasure is evidenced by the growing output of articles and books on 

 game breeding. 



California has slowly been awakening to the fact that some meas- 

 ures must be taken to increase her supply of game. Breeding as a 

 means of bettering game conditions has not been altogether over- 

 looked, but as yet very few adequate experiments have been performed 

 to ascertain whether or not the breeding of game in captivity would 

 be feasible under the conditions obtaining here. The hitherto ade- 

 quate supply of game has doubtless been largely responsible for this 

 neglect of an important remedy, and most of the experiments thus far 



[45] 



