102 



THE GAME BREEDER 



and that the game when properly handled 

 will add much to the value of the farms. 



To the Members of the Senate: 



A communication, addressed to the 

 United States Senate, from the New 

 Mexico Game Protective Association, 

 and signed by Miles W. Burford and 

 Robert E. Dietz, the president and secre- 

 tary, contains the following as published 

 in The Sportsmen's Review : 



The Agricultural Appropriation Bill, bear- 

 ing an appropriation of $50,000 for the enforce- 

 ment of the Federal Migratory Bird Law, will 

 soon come before the Senate. Because this 

 law restricts their shooting privileges and pre- 

 vents the old and fatal practice of "spring 

 shooting," the Interstate "Sportsmen's" Asso- 

 ciation, headed by Missouri, will launch an 

 attack seeking to kill this law by defeating the 

 appropriation for its enforcement. Failing 

 this, they will, according to their announced 

 intention, seek its repeal. 



This law is the most important single item 

 of progressive game legislation in the United 

 States, and this attack menaces the interests 

 of 5,000,000 American sportsmen and of all 

 generations to come. Our association, repre- 

 senting 1,000 New Mexico sportsmen, most 

 earnestly urges you, and all other progressive 

 Senators, to 



1. Be on the "firing line." 



2. Stand for the migratory bird law. 



3. Expose the Missouri lobby. 



4. Defeat the "game hogs" once for all, 

 and more than that, give the Secretary of 

 Agriculture $100,000 with which to enforce 

 this just law. 



When we apply the term "game hog" to the 

 leaders of the Interstate Sportsmen's Asso- 

 ciation, we speak not lightly nor abusively, but 

 with earnest regret based on full knowledge 

 of the facts. A bare outline of their argu- 

 ments and actions ought to convince any un- 

 prejudiced students of facts of the cynical self- 

 ishness which underlies this movement. We 

 will try to be very brief. 



Here follows a lengthy argument that 

 the law has caused an increase in wild 

 fowl; that all the District Courts have 

 not declared it unconstitutional; that 

 quail cannot stand a long open season, 

 etc. 



Mr. A. D. Holthouse, of St. Louis, in 

 the same publication, points out that the 

 New Mexico sportsmen might secure a 

 State law protecting song birds and 

 stopping the spring shooting of wild 

 fowl. 



The Game Breeders' Interest. 



We have pointed out that game breed- 



ers should be excepted from the pro- 

 visions of the migratory bird law as 

 they now are from many State protective 

 laws. Rapidly they are making the 

 game plentiful and they are sending the 

 food they produce to the markets. We 

 can hardly believe it possible that Con- 

 gress will appropriate $100,000 or- any 

 other sum to enforce the criminal absurd- 

 ities promulgated by the Biological Sur- 

 vey until they have been amended so as 

 to provide that they shall not apply to a 

 big food producing industry which many 

 States are encouraging by game breeders' 

 enactments. If the law shall be declared 

 constitutional we sincerely hope it can 

 be made to except those who produce 

 game birds. It would seem to be wise to 

 let the courts pass on it before appro- 

 priating a large sum to execute the pro- 

 posed criminal absurdities. 



Hen Pheasants. 



A writer in The Oregon Sportsman 

 favors the law prohibiting the shooting 

 of hen pheasants and says : 



We have several times seen a cat attack a 

 hen pheasant, and yet make no effort to 

 spring at a big male bird. In other words, out 

 of twenty hens and twenty males in the wild 

 state the chances are that not one of the 

 cocks would be caught or killed by hawks, 

 owls, cats and some of the other predatory 

 animals, where ten or twelve of the females 

 would be killed. After the first few days of 

 the shooting season the cocks become much 

 wilder than the females. They are more able 

 to take care of themselves while the females 

 lie closer to a dog and are more likely to be 

 killed. Every sportsman, therefore, or any 

 other person interested in the real protection 

 of the Chinese Pheasant and keeping up the 

 future supply, should refrain from killing hen 

 pheasants. 



In the first place the Chinese Pheasants are 

 polygamous in nature. They are entirely po- 

 lygamous when kept in captivity and they are 

 to a large extent polygamous in the wild state. 

 If there are as many cocks as hens in the wild 

 state, the birds will pair off, yet if there arc 

 more hens than cocks the hens will be cared 

 for much the same as they are in the tame 

 state where a cock is kept in a pen with from 

 four to six females. 



The most vital reason why the hen should 

 not be killed is that she is a smaller bird than 

 the cock and less able to protect herself in 

 the wild state. At the State Game Farm, for 

 instance, where cocks and hens are kept in an 

 open field, they are sometimes attacked by 

 hawks and owls. In over thirty birds that 

 were caught in this field by hawks and owls, 



