THE. GAME BREEDER 



53 



wild fowl and other game birds, pro-, 

 vided you know how. i'ne cioser tney 

 are kept "in captivity," as some game 

 laws read, the more clanger there is of 

 diseases and of producing birds uninter- 

 esting to sportsmen and undesirable on 

 the table. 



I once reared two small lots of wild 

 turkeys from eggs and stock birds pro- 

 cured from the late Professor Blanton, 

 of Virginia. Young turkeys from eggs 

 hatched under barnyard fowls in the 

 hatching house (where thousands of 

 pheasants and wild duck eggs were 

 hatched) were taken to the rearing field 

 with their foster mothers, placed in 

 coops and fed (somewhat overfed) on 

 pheasant foods. The young birds did 

 well for a time but soon it became evi^ 

 dent that something ailed them. They 

 became dull and stupid. I noticed that 

 they stood about the board on which 

 their food was placed and did not notice 

 the grasshoppers which hopped about 

 abundantly at their feet. I killed one of 

 the birds and attempted to have an ex- 

 amination to ascertain the disease made 

 in Washington but the weather was 

 warm and although the bird was shipped 

 in ice it arrived in a bad condition and 

 the cause or kind of disease was not dis- 

 covered. The other birds died one by 

 one, in my opinion from over-feeding 

 and too much "in captivity" words which 

 should be fired from every statute in the 

 interest of the health of the game birds. 



One brood of the turkeys hatched wild 

 by one of our hens in the woods was 

 brought in to the farm house by the 

 proud mother in fine condition. We fed 

 the old bird a little and she moved on 

 into a small wood bordered by grain and 

 grass where grasshoppers and other in- 

 sects and wild berries were plentiful. 

 Here the birds roamed by day and 

 roosted in the trees at night. I told the 

 gamekeeper's boy to throw stones at 

 them if they attempted to come in to 

 feed and once saw him drive them out 

 of the pheasant pen. They were quite 

 shy but thrived amazingly on the wild 

 food found in field and wood. When 

 about half grown a great horned owl 

 took several of the birds but the rest 

 matured and were handsome, healthy 



and strong on the wing. A number were 

 shot on the wing in the autumn. , I am 

 fully convinced that turkeys reared in 

 orchards, fields and woods with a good 

 range are not hard to manage and that 

 they can be reared very inexpensively 

 since they will procure practically all of 

 their food in the fields and woods. 



A Mixed Ration for Pheasants. 



Two ring-necked pheasants (a cock 

 and a hen) confined in a pen 8' x 16' x 6' 

 and rat-proof, sides and top of 1" mesh 

 galvanized wire, were recently tested as 

 to their food preference. Food was ac- 

 cessible to them at all times but in sep- 

 arate hoppers, which were covered with 

 wire to prevent waste. All food mater- 

 ials were carefully weighed on a kitchen 

 scale. My purpose in making the test 

 was to establish the food preference of 

 the birds. 



For convenience of comparison I have 

 ♦abulated the results as follows: 



Oz. Per cent. 



Cracked wheat 36 20 



Cracked corn 41.4 23 



Rolled oats 12.6 7 



Rape seed 21.6 12 



Millet seed 14.4 8 



Canary seed 12.6 7 



Ground dried meat 34.2 19 



Granulated charcoal 1.8 1 



Grit 1.8 1 



Ground bone 1.8 1 



Calcined shell 1.8 1 



180.0 



100 



In addition, the birds were supplied 

 with a head of fresh lettuce per day, o? 

 which they consumed from one-half to 

 three-quarters. It will be seen that the 

 food taken averaged 2^4 ounces each per 

 day. 



At the commencement of the test the 

 cock weighed 1 pound 14 ounces and the 

 hen 1 pound 8 ounces; at the ena of 

 thirty days, when the test was completed, 

 the cock weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces, a 

 gain of 8 ounces, whereas the hen 

 weighed 1 pound 12 ounces, or a gain of 

 4 ounces. This gain in weight indicated 

 that these pheasants had thrived upon 

 the mixed food afforded them. — Joseph 

 Ketchum, in California Fish and Game. 



