THE GAME BREEDER 43 



uraHsts admit that beneficial species may The fact that the stomachs of "bene- 



go wrong or acquire perverted appetites ficials" only show mice in places where 



as in the case of the beneficial marsh there is no game and where mice are 



hawks which became very fond of eating plentiful does not prove conclusively that 



heath hens on Martha's Vineyard as eggs and young birds will not be eaten 



reported by Dr. G. W. Field, when a when they are more plentiful and more 



state game officer; and the marsh hawk easy to procure than mice, 

 in Ohio shot by the editor of The Game It seems absurd for people who know 



Breeder as it flew with a cock quail in nothing about the natural history of the 



its talons. The best and we are in- rearing fields to attempt to make laws 



clined to think the only way to handle which tend to destroy a food-producing 



the vermin question is to except game industry. The country is large. There 



farms where laws are enacted protecting is plenty of room for laws which amuse 



vermin or to provide that game enemies those engaged in seeking them every year, 



may be destroyed when they acquire per- All that we ask is that they be not 



verted appetites as they often do when applied to game farms where they sure- 



a big lot of young game birds and eggs ly will reduce the number of the game 



are spread out to tempt them. birds. 



DECREASE IN PRAIRIE CHICKENS. 



By J. P. Turner, 

 Past-Secretary Manitoba Game Protective Association. 



In spite of all the protective legisla- risky an honor. In vain, it would seem, 



tion enacted in the older settled areas have many reasons been put forward to 



formerly occupied by either the pinnated account for the growing scarcity of birds ; 



or sharp-tailed grouse, the birds are not and doubt still exists, as it will continue 



increasing or even holding their own, and to do, insofar as the basic cause of this 



in our own province the fact is being scarcity is concerned ; but a careful peru- 



brought home to us that they are reach- sal of the more pronounced perils to 



ing a point of alarming scarcity. Some which the whole grouse family is to-day 



think the prairie chickens are making being subjected, will suggest that the 



their last stand on the Canadian prairies ; prairie chicken's ranks have become 



others believe that the extreme scarcity sadly thinned, not so much from any 



of birds will be gradually righted by na- specific agency as from an accumulation 



ture's laws; still others claim that the of adverse causes. Any one of these 



hunter plays no appreciable part in the natural causes embraces a menace to the 



decrease of birds ; and too many give the birds which they are able to overcome, 



question no thought whatever. but collectively, and if applied continu- 



During the last few years, and more ously, they spell disaster when reinforced- 



especially at the present time, the steady by man's baneful influence, 

 decrease in the number of prairie chicken To locate the outstanding natural ene- 



has been the source of much wonder, mies of the prairie chicken is not difficult, 

 speculation and argument. The question Leaving aside the possibility of disease 



is controversial to the last degree, for epidemic (of which we have no record, 



the reason that there is no final author- if it does exist), we ought to be able to 



ity to consult, no arbiter before whom to reduce these agencies of destruction to 



lay the innumerable claims, and no one, a group, to which, in whole or in part, 



in fact, who would care to assume so we can feel justified in attributing the 



