T¥. Game Breeder 



Published Monthly. Enteied as second-class matter. July g, 1915, at the Post'Office, New YorkiCiiy, 



New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



VOLUME XII 



JANUARY, J9J8 



NUMBER 4 



SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



Game for the Hospitals, 



Our announcement that The Game 

 Conservation Society would supply free 

 game to the hospitals during the period 

 of the war has been hailed with enthus- 

 iasm. No other society is equipped to 

 do such work. We estimate that at least 

 two thousand members of the society will 

 contribute some game and from some 

 members we expect to receive large dona- 

 tions. Since the entire product of our 

 experimental farm will be donated, with 

 the exception of a few of the rare birds 

 which will be preserved for breeding pur- 

 poses and possibly a few birds which may 

 be given to the harvesters who will pay 

 for the right to harvest the crop, under 

 proper regulations, we are confident that 

 a large amount of game will be sent to 

 the hospitals and the people will be sur- 

 prised at the amount of game which has 

 been produced since the laws were 

 amended so as to make it no longer crim- 

 inal to produce all or certain kinds of 

 game for sale as food. 



Prairie Chickens Scarce. 



[ The following newspap'.-r clipping sent 

 to The Game Breeder indicates that 

 prairie grouse need the protection of 

 game breeders in North Dakota as else- 

 where. The laws should be amended so 

 as to encourage the profitable breeding 

 of prairie chickens. Easily they can be 

 made more plentiful than pheasants are. 

 Fargo, N. D., Nov. 10.— Tuesday of 

 last week marked the close of the prairie 

 chicken season in North Dakota. The 

 hunting was the poorest in the history 

 of the State. Hunters now have turned 

 their attention to pass shooting. 



The recent cold weather brought many 

 of the big Northern ducks into the 

 sloughs and lakes, and some big bags 

 have been brought into the city the last 

 few days. 



Crows and hawks are blamed by farm- 

 ers for the scarcity of prairie chickens 

 this year and not the hunters, who gave 

 up this field of sport several weeks after 

 the season opened when it was learned 

 there were few prairie hens to be found 

 in the State. 



Inglorious. 



We cannot comprehend why the U. S. 

 Biological Survey still refuses permission 

 for us to import quail from Mexico for 

 experimental purposes, especially since 

 the society has announced that the crop 

 (jf game it proposes to produce would 

 be donated to hospitals. We said noth- 

 ing about this when we made the request 

 I'or permits for the same reason that we 

 did not mention this fact in asking for 

 the funds which have been contributed 

 to carry on the work. We did not wish 

 to make a charitable appeal but we pre- 

 ferred to get the money from those who 

 would like to have breeding experiments 

 made with American game birds. 



Of course the Survey is intensely in- 

 terested just now in getting one more 

 game law giving it the power to make 

 many regulations which are in effect 

 criminal laws and granting the right to 

 appoint numerous game officers with the 

 powers of United States marshals. 

 Many States have been handling the 

 game so creditably of late that we regret 

 to see those who are evidently opposed 

 to modern ideas given tlv right to inter- 



