THE GAME BREEDER 



* t 



175 



NOTES FROM THE GAME FARMS AND PRESERVES. 



The Technique of Ant Eggs. 



In order to separate ants from ant 

 eggs, take a bottle and put some anise 

 perfume in it and place the bottle among 

 the ants and eggs. You will find the ants 

 will carry all their eggs in the bottle 

 without themselves remaining therein. 



Caution — keep the bottle dry. 



Christian Pflederer. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. 



[We shall be obliged to the writer if he 

 will inform us how the ant eggs sold for bird 

 food are prepared for the dealer. — Editor.] 



Now is the Time. 



Shooting clubs and game preserve 

 owners who wish to purchase a few hun- 

 dred or a few thousand pheasants, wild 

 turkeys, ducks or other game for the fall 

 shooting would do well to write to our 

 advertisers now. Young game birds 

 when full feathered and full grown can 

 be moved safely. There will be few, if 

 any losses. The birds can be purchased 

 now for about one-half what they will 

 cost later. The prices already are high. 

 They are going higher. 



Clubs which are breeding quail, grouse, 

 wild turkeys and other indigenous game 

 wild in the fields and where no hand-rear- 

 ing is done will find it desirable to pur- 

 chase a few pheasants for the fall shoot- 

 ing. They can be liberated to advantage 

 shortly before the quail season opens un- 

 der the club rules ; and this may be quite 

 early in October or even in September 

 in the States which have good game 

 breeders' laws. The early shooting when 

 the weather is fine is desirable. Of 

 course, the late covies of quail which bear 

 small birds will not be shot for a month 

 or so. It will be found quite interesting 

 to put up a pheasant occasionally when 

 shooting quail and doves early in the 

 season. Some of the pheasants which 

 escape the guns will nest on preserves 

 where vermin is controlled. 



The Wild Duck Trouble and Other 

 Good Notes from Minnesota. 



A Minnesota reader, referring to the 

 item in the August issue of The Game 



Breeder about a wild duck malady, says 

 we have had the same; trouble with our 

 ducks and I have found it in the ducks 

 on other farms. It seems strange that 

 anyone in the business should not know 

 the disease. If it is the same as I have 

 found it in different places, it is nothing 

 more than "roup." Conkeys medicines 

 can be used with fair success by those 

 who do not have their own cures. 



Our reader adds that he has discovered 

 that a parasite known as "jiggers" kills 

 prairie grouse. It has long been known 

 that what is probably the same parasite is 

 very injurious to ruffed grouse in some 

 seasons and in some places. The "wood- 

 tick," so called in some localities, will also 

 make a decided impression on a lot of 

 children picking huckleberries, as we 

 have had occasion to observe, and one of 

 the youths often quoted a remark of the 

 writer (after the experience referred to) 

 that it was safer to pick the huckleberries 

 with dimes handed to local pickers who 

 came to the door. Much has been writ- 

 ten about the "tick" and the ruffed 

 grouse. 



We do not regard it strange that those 

 beginning to rear wild ducks should not 

 knowi "roup." The leading English au- 

 thorities say that the wild ducks are quite 

 free from diseases, and we have found 

 this to be true, having bred many thous- 

 ands of ducks and having visited tens of 

 thousands more without ever hearing a 

 complaint about any trouble, excepting 

 the usual "straddles" and cramp. 



One thing is certain, that too much 

 "in captivity" and sometimes a very littie 

 of this will start diseases which birds in 

 a wild state do not appear to have. 



Our correspondent is clearly right in 

 saying comparatively little is known 

 about the diseases of birds, even poul- 

 try. The best medicine is prevention. 

 Do not crowd the birds too much. Do 

 not attempt to rear them in unsanitary 

 places. Whenever possible, breed the 

 game (especially the quail and all the 

 grouse) in a wild state in protected, safe 

 and attractive fields and woods. As many 

 birds quickly can be reared by beat 



