THE GAME BREEDER 



151 



care of their natural parents quickly 

 learn to be on their guard against natural 

 enemies and they are taught to seek the 

 natural foods which vary with the sea- 

 sons. Hand-reared quail are without ex- 

 perience when they are liberated and, 

 since the natural enemies of game are 

 far more abundant in America than they 

 are in countries where the game is prop- 

 erly looked after, and where vermin is 

 closely controlled, the birds reared in 

 captivity often fall an easy prey to the 

 natural enemies. 



A knowledge of hand-rearing is valu- 

 able since it is desirable to save the eggs 

 from nests which have been exposed by 

 farm machinery and from nests in ex- 

 posed situations. It should be regarded 

 only as a supplemental work; the main 

 effort should be to produce the birds 

 abundantly in every field. It has been 

 found an easy and inexpensive matter to 

 make the birds as abundant as they 

 should be without resort to any artificial 

 methods. The hand rearing of pheasants 

 and wild ducks is highly desirable in 

 America as it has been found to be in the 

 older countries where large numbers of 

 birds are produced on comparatively 

 small areas both for sport and for profit. 



We should follow the methods of the 

 older countries in the handling of our 

 quail or partridges, and these methods 

 are almost exclusively wild breeding 

 methods both in England and on the Con- 

 tinent of Europe. 



The Game Conservation Society will 

 publish, early in the fall, a practical 

 book on quail breeding for sport and for 

 profit. The results obtained on many 

 farms in America will be fully described 

 and illustrated with diagrams showing 

 how to make the fields safe and attrac- 

 tive. There will be a chapter on hand 

 rearing, giving the experience of many 

 American breeders who have been suc- 

 cessful in rearing quail in captivity and 

 suggestions as to the places where sue 

 tame game should be liberated. 



We have about an hundred members 

 who are hand-rearing quail or who have 

 done so successfully — that is to say, they 

 have reared a few, and in some cases a 

 few hundred quail. One of these breed- 



ers says the hand-reared quail cannot be 

 sold for less than $25 per dozen. It is 

 significant that we have many more hun- 

 dreds of members who are breeding 

 quail in a wild state and that they safely 

 shoot a few hundred birds the first sea- 

 son and often thousands of quail are shot 

 every season thereafter. These are quail 

 which would have been eaten by snakes, 

 foxes, hawks, skunks, crows, et al., had 

 not the laws permitted the owners of the 

 birds to breed them and to shoot them. 

 Shooting in America as elsewhere can be 

 made to produce a big lot of game every 

 season — enough for all of the people to 

 have quail on their tables. 



MORE WATER. 



The more we think about the subject 

 the more we are convinced that the wild 

 ducks need "more" water in many States 

 far more than they need "more" game 

 laws. The draining of highly desirable 

 breeding grounds still goes on. Railways 

 are constructed through the compara- 

 tively limited areas where the canvasback 

 and the other desirable wild fowl nested 

 in great abundance. A little illegal shoot- 

 ing on the nest grounds and the destruc- 

 tion by abundant cats and other vermin 

 precedes the draining which, of course, 

 puts an end to the wild fowl in the 

 neighborhood. Let us have "more water" 

 and "fewer game laws." 



It has always seemed strange that 

 there should be no objection to a land 

 owner draining his marshes or to the 

 State or province running big ditches 

 through the duck breeding grounds and 

 putting an end to the game when there 

 is opposition to the saving of some of 

 the marshes for profitable wild duck 

 breeding. Fortunately the objection is 

 vanishing rapidly and the sportsmen who 

 do nothing but secure more laws are be- 

 ginning to realize that it is a good idea to 

 have "more game" and that a big lot of 

 wild ducks will fly out from marshes 

 which are not drained where large num- 

 bers are bred for sport and for profit. 

 It. is highly important to save some of 

 the marshes and to keep them quiet dur- 

 ing the breeding season. 



