THE GAME BREEDER 



149 



expressed since The Game ]ireeder ex- 

 hibited bobwhite in a cage on its cover) 

 should always contain a clause that they 

 do not apply to game produced by in- 

 dustry — the protection from enemies be- 

 ing an important part of the industry. 



MORE ABOUT BRANTA EXIMO. 



The inventor of Branta Eximo, de- 

 scribed in this issue, says when we wish 

 to shoot something larger than a duck 

 we go after the geese. The half-bred 

 wild goose, for which enclosed find ex- 

 press receipt, I shot flying at fifty yards 

 with No. 6 shot which we always use in 

 all our wild goose shooting. 



QUAIL IN WINTER. 



The paper by General George W. 

 Wingate, "How to Preserve Quail," 

 printed in this issue, is interesting, 

 timely and important. The losses of 

 quail due to climate often are severe 

 not only in New York but in all of the 

 Northern States. It is the habit of our 

 quails, which are terrestrial birds, to sit 

 quietly on the ground until the snow 

 covers them, often to a depth of some 

 feet. If the snow does not freeze the 

 covey will burst through it and fly away 

 in search of food, which unfortunately 

 cannot be found on many of the closely 

 cultivated fields, where the wild rose, the 

 sumac, the wild sunflower and other wild 

 foods have been destroyed in the inter- 

 est of agriculture. When the snow 

 freezes on top and an ice crust is formed 

 the quails are imprisoned and perish mis- 

 erably. Often not a bird survives on 

 vast areas. 



On one of our favorite shooting" 

 grounds in Ohio, where it was an easy 

 matter some years ago for a party of 

 four guns to shoot a wagon-load of quail 

 in a week, the quail were practically ex- 

 terminated during a severe winter storm 

 when an ice crust formed on the snow. 

 We tramped for several days, the follow- 

 ing autumn, over this famous quail 

 ground, and although we had excellent 

 dogs we failed to find any quail except- 

 ing one small bevy of twelve birds which 

 flew up into the beech trees, where we 



left them without firing a gun. We had 

 become convinced that the quail prac- 

 tically had been exterminated. 



The enactment of laws prohibiting 

 shooting for a term of years may result 

 in an increase of the game, but a little 

 shooting in States where the covers and 

 the foods are gone seems to be too much ; 

 and every few years we can count on a 

 severe snow, when our quail are sure to 

 be almost annihilated. It is a very easy 

 matter to break up the snow crust with 

 a snow plow and to feed the quail on one 

 or more long lines across the game farm 

 or preserve, where it pays to have quail. 

 It is easy to trap and house the birds 

 from exposed situations, as General 

 Wingate suggests, and also to invite 

 many quail to come to the barnyards to 

 be fed and sheltered ; but who will un- 

 dertake to care for the quail in a prac- 

 tical and somewhat expensive manner if 

 the reward for doing so is a term in jail 

 or a heavy fine. 



Quail at $5.00' or even $3.00 a dozen 

 in the markets can be made a wonderful 

 food crop. Sport need have nothing to 

 fear from such abundance. Quail on the 

 song-bird list, with a standing army of 

 game police to arrest anyone who even 

 attempts to look after the game in win- 

 ter, never will be a success either for 

 sport or for food. 



The time has arrived, as often we 

 have pointed out, for the sportsmen to 

 deal fairly with the farmers. Working 

 together, easily they can make the quail 

 abundant and keep it plentiful both for 

 sport and for profit. 



We published some years ago the story 

 of a sportsman-farmer who trapped the 

 quail on his farm, anticipating a hard 

 winter, and kept them securely in his 

 barn. Practically all of the quail in his 

 county were killed by reason of a crust 

 of ice forming on top of a deep snow. 

 In the spring the liberated quail bred 

 nicely and in a few years they had re- 

 stocked many fields throughout the 

 county. 



Of course the laws should be amended 

 so as to make it no longer criminal to 

 look after the birds properly ; to trap 

 them for winter protecilon and in order 

 to separate them and turn them down in 



