THE GAME BREEDER 



lOT 



appear never to interbreed. Various 

 other grouse crosses have occurred, but 

 for variety of hybrids the grouse must 

 give place to the ducks. In this family 

 at least two dozen distinct crosses have 

 been observed, some of them several 

 times, such as those between the mallard 

 (anas boscas) and pintail (dafila acuta) 

 and between the smew (mergas albellus) 

 and golden-eye (clangula glaucion). 



The duck family has afforded several 

 undoubted cases of fertile hybrids. That 

 between the pintail (dafila acuta) and the 

 domestic duck, the descendant of the 

 mallard, may be especially cited. In one 

 instance ducklings were obtained from a 

 pair of these hybrids, and more" than 

 once the hybrid has bred again with the 

 pure pintail, the last instance being one 

 recorded by Mr. J. F. B. Sharpe in the 

 "Feathered World." In this the hybrid 

 duck laid eight eggs, all of which were 

 fertile, and hatched seven ducklings, one 

 egg having been cracked. She proved a 

 particularly careful and intelligent 

 mother, thus recalling the good repute 

 of the mule canary as a nurse. 



The fact that the pintail and mallard- 

 can produce a fertile cross shows that 

 there are some other causes besides 

 mutual sterility which keeps species dis- 

 tinct in the wild state, for, as I have 

 said above, the pintail mallard hybrid is 

 one of the best known wild bred hybrids 

 and yet the two species remain distinct 

 on the whole. 



Double hybrid ducks have occurred, as 

 well as pheasants. M. G. Rogeron, of 

 Angers, has bred many most remarkable 

 ones from a hybrid between mallard and 

 gadwall mated to a pochard, and more 

 recently Mr. J. L. Bonhote has succeeded 

 in raising ducks in which the blood of 

 the pintail, mallard and Indian spot-billed 

 duck was combined. 



"To no greater extent than in any other 

 year. Some of them stop off on their 

 flight from the colder, regions every year 

 and our small feathered game suffered 

 therefrom. I have so far received two 

 specimens and have mounted them for 

 the museum. They are death on our 

 ruffed grouse, killing all they can reach- 

 One of these specimens had in its stom- 

 ach a Plymouth Rock chick, a ruffed 

 grouse and a gray squirrel. They are the 

 worst pests for our small feathered game 

 there is." — Maine Woods. 



Hawk Dines on Plymouth Rock Ruf- 

 fed Grouse and Squirrel. 



Curator Thomas A. James of the State 

 museum was asked concerning the great 

 invasion of goshawks from the Arctic 

 regions into Massachusetts as to the ex- 

 tent the same pests had invaded Maine 

 and received the prompt answer: 



Hawk Dines on Pheasant. 



Toledo, Wash., Nov. 10. — Emmet 

 Koontz, who lives on Salmon Creek. 

 Road, killed a chicken hawk recently 

 measuring 4 feet 2 inches from tip to tip. 

 The hawk has been an annoyance for the 

 last two or three years and when killed 

 had a mouth full of Chinese pheasant 

 meat, which proved that it had been prey- 

 ing upon game birds as well as upon 



poultry yards. 



♦— 



More Geese. 



A dispatch to the World, N. Y., says 

 Wm. Firke, the Illinois "goose king," will 

 ship to the metropolitan markets during 

 the present month (December) 75,000 

 birds, breaking his record of 50,000 

 reached one year ago. 



This seems quite a lot of geese for one 

 man to ship in a month but when the 

 breeding of wild geese for sport and 

 profit which is now in its infancy grows 

 as it will rapidly as the laws are amended 

 to encourage food production, we believe 

 the number of wild geese shipped to the 

 markets will be much larger than the fig- 

 ures above mentioned. 



Wild geese now easily are produced 

 by breeders as far south as North Caro- 

 lina and since they find most of their 

 food when bred on proper ground they 

 can be produced inexpensively. 



The present price for wild geese alive 

 is about $5 per bird, higher prices being 

 asked for mated pairs which are guar- 

 anteed to lay eggs. Most of the duck 

 clubs from New England to the Culf have 

 pens of live wild geese which are used 

 for decovs but there are a number of 



