THE GAME BREEDER 



111 



Bird Scarcity Alarming. 



Conservation Commission Studies 



Decrease of Partridge. 



The causes of the decrease in part- 

 ridges is the subject of a comprehensive 

 investigation now being conducted by the 

 Conservation Commission through all of 

 its game protectors and forest rangers, 

 and in co-operation with fish and game 

 associations and rod and gun clubs. The 

 investigation is the result of alarming 

 reports that have come from all quarters 

 for the last two years. The commission 

 hopes to establish by it not only the ex- 

 tent of the decrease in the birds but also 

 the broad underlying causes. 



For more than two years every game 

 protector and forest ranger has been re- 

 quired to make weekly reports to the 

 commission on all of the game that he 

 has seen, and its condition from time to 

 time. A great mass of statistics and other 

 data on the partridges has been thus col- 

 lected. In addition, a questionnaire has 

 just been mailed to the entire field force 

 and to 450 sportsmen's associations, with 

 a request that they supply the informa- 

 tion asked. 



The questionaire asks whether there 

 has been an increase or decrease of part- 

 ridges in the district covered by the one 

 answering the questions, and, if so, 

 whether any one of a number of stated 

 reasons are assigned as the cause. 

 Among these reasons are hawks, owls, 

 weasels, foxes, disease, rigors of winter 

 weather, slaughter by man, bad nesting 

 seasons, or other causes. The informant 

 is also requested to state whether his 

 experiences in the woods during the nest- 

 ing season, and the period when the young 

 birds are on the ground, has indicated 

 that cats are a serious enemy of grouse. 



One of the questions which it is hoped 

 will yield valuable information is that 

 which asks whether either young or old 

 birds have appeared to be unusually sub- 

 ject to disease, or have been attacked by 

 ticks or other external or internal para- 

 sites. Sporadic reports of such parasites 

 have been reaching the commission from 

 various quarters. 



The informant is asked to state 

 whether he finds that since the advent of 



the automobile the covers are more sys- 

 tematically and frequently hunted by a 

 larger number of hunters than formerly, 

 who penetrate into more remote districts, 

 and, if so, to what extent he believes this 

 to be responsible for the decrease. 



The informant is further asked to state 

 whether he advises a closed season for a 

 number of years, the further shortening 

 of the open seasons and a systematic cam- 

 paign of vermin trapping to be carried on 

 by sportsmen's associations and others, 

 under the direction of the Conservation 

 Commission. 



The Commission has already analyzed 

 the climatological reports of the Weather 

 Bureau for the last three nesting seasons, 

 taking different sections of the State sep- 

 arately, and has ascertained that in prac- 

 tically all localities the rainfall has been 

 very much above normal during the 

 breeding season. 



It is hoped that when the investigation 

 is finished the data collected will throw 

 real hght on the condition of the part- 

 ridges and indicate proper measures for 

 their more effective protection. 



Strange no one seems to mention 

 game laws as a reason for the scarcity. 

 Any naturalist knows that additional 

 checks to increase cause the game to van- 

 ish. Game laws have prevented people 

 from looking after the game. The natur- 

 alist. Dr. Shufeldt, pointed out that it was 

 being protected off the face of the earth. 



Free Entry of Game Into Paris is 

 Asked. 



Paris. — The "Conseil General," the 

 deliberative body of the department of the 

 Seine, has asked the government to per- 

 mit the entry of game into Paris more 

 freely. This measure, it is held, would 

 ease the meat and poultry market. The 

 minister of agriculture has already au- 

 thorized the shooting of wild ducks. 



Before the war the yearly receipts 

 of game at the central markets averaged 

 150,000 pheasants, 170.000 hares, 360.- 

 000 partridges, 620,000 larks, 450.000 

 rabbits, 250,000 water fowl. 



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