102 



THE GAME BREEDER 



fere with the work of State game officers 

 or with those who are actively engaged 

 in producing more game. 



More Pheasants. 



Under the heading, "Why Pheasants 

 Are Scarce," The Sportsman's Review 

 says: The decline of pheasant importa- 

 tions by this country is graphically illus- 

 trated in the following statistics, fur- 

 nished by Mr. W. C. Henderson, acting 

 chief, United States Bureau, of Biologi- 

 cal Survey: 



Year Pheasants 



1911 23,398 



1912 15,412 



1913 9,417 



1914 4,148 



1915 15,841 



1916 2,109 



1917 . 832 



(Year ending June 30) 



Nearly all the imported pheasants were 

 'brought from England prior to the war ; prac- 

 tically no shipments are received from there 

 •now. The largest shipments now coming in 

 are from Canada, with small importations 

 now and then from China and Japan. 



Only live pheasants are reported under the 

 law, hence the figures given above do not 

 include birds brought over in cold storaige for 

 food purposes. Shortly before the war, the 

 largest importer of pheasants of this class es- 

 timated that annual importations amounted 

 to 9,000 birds. To-day not a bird is being 

 imported for food purposes, an embargo hav- 

 ing been placed on such shipments last Feb- 

 ruary. Importers state that the supply of 

 birds from England for food purposes kept 

 up quite well til! the embargo went into 

 effect. 



The heading, "Why Pheasants Are 

 Scarce," is not only misleading but false. 

 As we pointed out last month, North 

 America has become the biggest pheasant 

 producing country in the world. One of 

 ■our Western readers well said it will 

 no longer be necessary to import any 

 pheasants. There are thousands of 

 pheasant breeders in the United States, 

 ■some breeding very large numbers. Two 

 sales of American-bred pheasants which 

 happened to come to our notice this year 

 amounted to more than twice the total 

 number of pheasants imported from all 

 foreign countries during the year 1916. 

 Since there were many thousands of 

 sales of pheasants during the year, the 

 number of birds sold in many cases being 



large, we have no doubt that many more 

 American-bred pheasants were sold in 

 1917 than were ' imported from all the 

 foreign countries during the seven years 

 cited in the report of the U. S. Biologi- 

 cal Survey. 



Possibly the Biological Survey will say 

 they are not in the game bird business ; 

 the Bureau of Animal Industry should 

 know how many wild ducks and pheas- 

 ants have been produced by industry. 

 Some bureau should know about this 

 food industry and if it is encouraged. 



A U. S. Department That Sleeps 

 Soundly. 



As we understand the term biological 

 survey it is intended tO' indicate a govern- 

 mental department provided to survey 

 the pheasants as well as other forms of 

 life and to make intelligent reports. 

 During the last few years there has been 

 a movement to which some one has given 

 the homely term, "more game" move-: 

 ment (probably because The Game 

 Breeder says "more game and fewer 

 game laws") which has resulted in the 

 production and sale of millions of pheas- 

 ants, wild ducks, quail and other game 

 birds. One would imagine that a depart- 

 ment named "biological" would be aware 

 of such a movement and would have fig- 

 ures available showing its vast economic 

 importance. 



The movement is the result of the 

 work of many scientists of ability and 

 many intelligent sportsmen, with the dean 

 of American sportsmen, Charles Hallock. 

 who died last December in Washington, 

 at their head. Many State game de- 

 partments with wide-awake modern offi- 

 cers have endeavored to encourage the 

 production of pheasants and other wild 

 food birds and have favored amendments 

 to State laws which make it no longer 

 criminal to produce such food on the 

 farms. 



The U. S. Department of Biological 

 Survey seems to have slept soundly 

 through this great economic movement 

 which has resulted in making the United 

 States the biggest pheasant producing 

 country in the world. It seems to have 

 no knowledge about the sales of millions 



