50 



THE GAME BREEDER 



and boys engaged in the destruction of arma- 

 dillos for the sake of their armors, which are 

 sold in local markets or sent to Northern 

 homes, who, unaware of the destruction of the 

 breeding places of wild game, consider the 

 killing of armadillos an act of commercialism, 

 but they do not know that these hunters of 

 armadillos are benefactors to wild game and 

 birds and to the State. 



I recommend that the Legislature place a 

 bounty on armadillos, ground squirrels and 

 paisanos, or chaparral cocks, all of which, by 

 general consent, are destructive of bird eggs 

 and young birds. 



Wesley Peacock. 



The News, San Antonio. 



It is interesting to learn that the 

 soldiers are acting as game keepers. We 



would like to hear from the Oneida Com- 

 munity what would be the 'best trap for 

 armadillos to be used on Texas game 

 farms and preserves. We believe the 

 state will be a great game-producing 

 state before long. Our circulation is in- 

 creasing rapidly in Texas. When they 

 have ranches in Texas often they are big 

 ones and there is plenty of room for some 

 corking big game ranches which should 

 make from ten to one hundred thousand 

 dollars a year for their owners. Many 

 of our members now write that the game 

 is the most profitable live stock on their 

 places. 



WHY THE PRAIRIE CHICKENS VANISH. 



Some Letters from Saskatchewan. 



The following abstracts from letters 

 give some of the reasons for the extirpa- 

 tion of a most valuable wild food bird 

 which a few years ago was abundant in 

 the Province. 



Vermin. 



Mr. D. Findley writes : "There is no doubt 

 at all but that the crows destroy a great num- 

 ber of eggs and also young chickens. A crow 

 dropped a chicken in my yard last spring when 

 flying over the town, and I feel sure they do 

 considerable damage to prairie chickens and 

 other birds." 



George Lang says : "The crow is undoubt- 

 edly the greatest enemy of our game birds. 

 They were in flocks of thousands here last 

 fall about the time the shooting season opened. 

 Of course, at that time they do no harm to 

 speak of, but during the hatching season last 

 spring they destroyed 60 per cent of the mal- 

 lard eggs in this district. On the experimental 

 farm we lost in 1915, by actual count, sixty- 

 eight of our domestic fowl. We repeatedly 

 saw the crows taking them, but they were so 

 cunning that we were unable to shoot many. 

 This past season we commenced to shoot and 

 poison them as soon as they arrived in the 

 spring. We destroyed their nests wherever 

 found and so discouraged them that it was a 

 rare sight to see a crow around the farm." 



W. G. Swift writes: "I have seen a covey 

 of twelve chickens cleaned out by a single 

 hawk." 



Wires. 



L R. Irving writes: "I have lived here* for 

 the last thirty-four years and have never seen 

 chickens so scarce. I consider that immense 



numbers of birds are killed annually by flying 

 against telephone wires. I have picked up 

 dozens of birds with broken necks under the 

 wires." 



George Lang says: "You will note that I 

 make reference to the telephone wires as an- 

 other source of destruction to the chickens. 

 I believe that this is a matter worth looking 

 into sometime in the near future. I know 

 that in districts in Scotland where grouse and 

 pheasants are to be found it is the custom to 

 hang strips of wash tin on the wires in order 

 that the birds may see that there is something 

 in their line of flight. 



_ "I have found many chickens in the last few 

 years that had been killed in this manner. 

 There is a family of children here who walk 

 in to school from a mile in the country. A 

 few days ago they brought me the seventh 

 pinnated grouse that they have picked up this 

 winter along this one mile of wire." 



Fires. 



G. O. Robertson writes : "Prairie fires in 

 the past have had something to do with de- 

 stroying the nests of prairie chickens." 



Wm. Speddington writes : "I have often 

 seen in going over newly burnt land the nest 

 of prairie chickens destroyed as well as the 

 mother bird which had stayed on the nest until 

 suffocated." 



W. A. Abbott writes: "I notice that as the 

 country is being settled, places where the 

 chickens were in the habit of breeding are 

 being brought under cultivation and conse- 

 quently destroyed. The chickens have entirely 

 disappeared from this district where the set- 

 tlers have burned off the grass previous to 

 breaking up the land." 



