14 



THE GAME BREEDER 



a spike fully three inches long, a num- 

 ber of cut nail heads, several tacks and 

 small bits of iron. The gravel and acids 

 of the stomach had worn the nails al- 

 most through in many places and 

 sharpened them to needle points, as will 

 be seen in the picture. This was not a 

 case of poisoning, but death came from 

 the hemorrhage after the nails had punc- 

 tured the walls of the stomach. 



I have examined a great number of 

 ducks which I have killed and found dead 

 on the marsh. In the stomach of one 

 bird there was seventy-two chilled shot 

 and a brass collar button in another, a 

 small wood screw, a dozen shot and a 

 piece of cast iron, all much worn. Of 

 over thirty ducks which I have ex- 

 amined, all have contained from a few 

 to a half ounce of shot. While I have 

 examined many other species of duck, 



only in the Mallard have I found these 

 conditions. 



To ' sum up the whole matter, I find 

 that we do all our shooting on the same 

 ponds, where the ducks are baited or fed. 

 For lack of grit, the Mallard takes up 

 from the bottom of our four-inch deep 

 ponds everything that seems to answer 

 the purpose of ginding material for its 

 food, as in no places around San Fran- 

 cisco Bay or up the Sacramento or San 

 Jauquin rivers where shooting is done, 

 is there any gravel; nothing but the soft 

 marsh mud, which would run through a 

 hundred mesh sieve like water. 



Shooting, as we do, on these ponds 

 where we feed, the Mallard with his 

 long neck reaches down in the shallow 

 water, readily picking up the shot lying 

 on the mud, and this, as Mr. Finley has 

 said, causes a lingering death either by 

 starvation or poisoning. 



GAME PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION. 



Their Recent National Conference in This City. 



By A. A. Hill. 



A meeting of sportsmen, game com- 

 missioners and wardens was recently held 

 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in this city 

 under the auspices of the Department 

 of Game Breeding and Preserving of the 

 American Game Protective Association. 

 Papers were read on Game Preserving 

 in America, by A. G. MacVicar, on 

 "Breeding Wild Turkey," by JHenry P. 

 Bridges, and on "Deer and Elk Breed- 

 ing," by John M. Philips. Lee S. Cran- 

 dall reported on the "Breeding of Mis- 

 cellaneous Species of Game." 



A. G. MacVicar, head keeper of the 

 Childs-Walcott Preserve in Connecticut, 

 assailed the neglect of the native species 

 of game birds in favor of the imported 

 species. "It seems rather strange," he 

 said, "that many people spend a lot of 

 money and time in trying to establish 

 foreign game without making any at- 

 tempt to remedy the conditions that have 

 so nearly exterminated the natives." . 



Quail, pheasants, ruffed grouse, duck, 

 and some woodcock can be bred in New 



England and in regions having similar 

 physical features and climate, said Mr. 

 MacVicar. To bring back these native 

 birds to something like their former num- 

 bers, two things must be done : destroy 

 the enemies of game by thorough and 

 systematic trapping and increase the food 

 supply. 



Of the enemies of game house-cats and 

 hawks are the most destructive. "An 

 efficient gamekeeper," said Mr. Mac 

 Vicar, "will take as much pains to trap 

 a predatory cat in June as a fur trap- 

 per will to trap a nine-dollar fox in Jan- 

 uary. The wandering cat does more 

 damage among birds than all other ver- 

 min combined." 



"Food," he continued, "can be supplied 

 at small expense by sowing patches of 

 buckwheat, millet, brown corn, and kaf- 

 fir corn. The latter is available in snow, 

 as the stiff stalk keeps the grain above 

 the snow, and therefore where the birds 

 can get it. These food patches should 

 always be as near cover as possible and 

 in a sheltered location. Barberries, 



