42 



THE GAME BREEDER 



no brush or briars, will not harbor any 

 quail. No one would think of running 

 dogs over vast areas laid down in grass 

 or planted in fall wheat, or over any 

 naked fields without food or cover, even 

 at the fences. Some of my favorite 

 quail grounds have been made absolutely 

 uninhabitable by reason of the introduc- 

 tion of wire fences, without food or 

 cover, about fields such as I have re- 

 ferred to. All such places, however, can 

 be made to yield quail abundantly pro- 

 vided small areas of quail foods be 

 planted and patches of berry-briars, 

 sumac and wild roses be made to shelter 

 the covies and supply the necessary 

 foods. A strip of ground planted espe- 

 cially for the birds, running either side 

 of a wire fence, will make the field safe 

 and attractive, and in large fields a quail 

 garden might well be made in the center 

 and enclosed with a large mesh chicken 

 wire. The important foods for quail 

 are berries and other fruits, sumac, wild 

 roses, and various grains, especially 

 wheat, buckwheat, and corn. A half acre 

 planted here and there with these grains 

 and bordered with blackberry briars, 

 wild roses, sumac and some wild grasses 

 and brush will make the most unattrac- 

 tive ground attractive and comparatively 

 safe. A beat-keeper should be em- 

 ployed to persistently destroy the ver- 

 min on his beat, which should not ex- 

 ceed a thousand or twelve hundred acres, 

 and he should be on hand in the winter 

 to find and feed the birds during severe 

 weather. A few artificial covers where 

 the birds have grain and grit will save 



mem from climatic losses, but to keep up 

 a good supply of birds the covers and 

 foods should be made and kept plentiful 

 and evenly distributed. Where there are 

 small thickets these should be freed from 

 vermin and a litle grain should be planted 

 and left standing near them. The 

 ground used for covers and foods should 

 be rented, of course, and the more foods 

 and covers planted the better. 



No one can be expected to breed quail 

 or any other game or to provide the 

 necessary foods and covers and to de- 

 stroy the vermin in States where quail 

 shooting is prohibited. While it un- 

 doubtedly is necessary in many States to 

 stop the shooting, so long as no one 

 looks after the game, all breeders should 

 be excepted from such laws and given 

 every encouragement to make the quail 

 plentiful on farms which they own or 

 which they rent for shooting or breeding 

 purposes. As soon as it is legal for 

 breeders to sell some of their game, the 

 sale of a very little of it will pay all the 

 expenses of a well-conducted shoot or 

 preserve. "• 



I know places where the quail have 

 been made tremendously abundant, and 

 where they are kept plentiful year after 

 year, although thousands of birds are 

 shot every season. There are no such 

 places in the States where quail shooting 

 is prohibited or where the seasons are 

 very short and the bag limits very small, 

 and where the lands are made more and 

 more unsafe and more and more un- 

 attractive because they are closely culti- 

 vated and the natural covers and foods 

 are destroyed. 



PARTRIDGE SHOOTING IN HUNGARY. 



By Captain C. E. Radcliffe. 



Probably there is no more extraordi- 

 nary sight to the eyes of a shooting man 

 than that which he sees on his first visit 

 to one of the vast Hungarian estates on 

 the fertile plains of that fine country, 

 where the owner takes an interest in the 

 preservation of his domains for par- 



tridge shooting. The average head of 

 game per acre is positively bewildering, 

 even to those who are accustomed to the 

 best estates in the eastern counties of 

 England. 



For the purpose of illustrating how 

 the sport is carried on in Hungary, a few 



