T he Game Breeder 



Published Monthly. Enteied as second-class matter. July q. 1915, at the Post Office, New York City, 



New York, under the Act ot March 3, 1879. 



VOLUME IX 



JUNE, I9J6 

 SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



NUMBER 3 



Are We Coming to This? 



A newspaper item in the Saturday 

 News of Lewisburgh, Pa., states that the 

 quail season opens October 15 and closes 

 November 1. The limit is four birds in 

 one day, ten in a week, and twenty in 

 the season. Evidently both season and 

 bag limit are down to a microscopic 

 limit. 



California Fish and Game, the quar- 

 terly publication of the State Game De- 

 partment, quoting the above asks: "Are 

 we coming to this? Will twenty years 

 more hunting in California bring this 

 State to-the same short season and small 

 bag limit ?" and says : "The answer is 

 yes, unless we profit by the experience 

 of such States as Pennsylvania." 



The truth of the matter is that Cali- 

 fornia, like many other States soon will 

 learn that the season and bag limits 

 quoted are much too big. Many States 

 have put bobwhite on the song bird list 

 and only permit this bird to be eaten by 

 cats, foxes, crows and other vermin. Of 

 course, a few illegal shooters, also, can 

 have quail to eat. It is a simple, well un- 

 derstood natural law that if we add to 

 the checks to increase of any species, the 

 species quickly will decrease in numbers. 

 Shooting and cats are important checks 

 to increase. The easy way to save the 

 quail has been found by some game offi- 

 cers to be, to take the sportsman's 

 money and use it to execute laws pro- 

 hibiting quail shooting. The sportsman 

 can pay $1.00 for a license and shoot at 

 the trap. 



A Better Way. 



In New York State quail shooting is 

 prohibited for a term of years, except- 



ing on Long Island. It has been a diffi- 

 cult matter to keep the island open. For- 

 tunately there are many clubs and indi- 

 vidual quail breeders on the Island. The 

 quail are increasing in numbers, rapidly, 

 the shooting is good and the bag limit 

 has been enlarged recently. 



The places where foxes, hawks, crows, 

 cats and other vermin are best controlled 

 have the best shooting, but there is ex- 

 cellent shooting on many places where 

 any one can shoot by reason of the fact 

 that many quail nest outside the "noisy 

 sanctuaries" which are the best possible 

 sanctuaries because the shooting always, 

 is lively on the inside and fairly good in 

 the neighborhood of such places. It is; 

 a very simple proposition based on Dar- 

 win's statement, "reduce the checks to 

 increase and the species quickly will in- 

 crease to any amount." 



Game Laws and Quail. 



Of course, in States where quail 

 shooting is prohibited and where no one 

 is permitted to breed quail for profit, the 

 cats and other vermin have a fair amount 

 of game to eat excepting on places 

 where the covers are few and where nat- 

 ural foods are scarce. In such places the 

 vermin and a little illegal shooting^ is 

 enough to exterminate the game during 

 the periods when shooting is prohibited. 



It is highly important that those who 

 arrange with the farmers to shoot on the 

 posted farms should be permitted to sell 

 some of the quail they produce. It costs 

 something to plant covers and food so 

 as to keep the birds abundant and evenly 

 distributed. It costs something to con- 

 trol the foxes, hawks, crows, v snakes, 

 cats and many other game enemies so 



