THE GAME BREEDER 



13 



is like one in the wilds of the Adiron- 

 dacks. Besides being a lover of birds, 

 I confess to being an enthusiastic fisher- 

 man. It has been a long, long time since 

 I had such sport with the rod as I had 

 last Summer at Amston Lake ! We want 

 to make it a rendezvous for lovers of 

 birds, game, and unsullied Nature, and I 



can heartily commend it as such. And 

 further, it will always be a pleasure to us 

 to fraternize and co-operate with the 

 members of THE GAME CONSER- 

 VATION SOCIETY, and of all other 

 organizations which have likewise at 

 heart the conservation of the wild birds 

 and game of America. 



WILD TURKEY NOTES. 



By Caton and McIlhenney. 



It is quite an easy matter to breed a 

 good lot of wild turkeys but often, if 

 held up too closely, they become quite 

 tame, too tame for sport in fact, and if 

 kept wild and on a big range many will 

 be lost to vermin and poachers. The}* 

 are well worth having, however, and 

 since on suitable ground containing nat- 

 ural foods it does not cost much to feed 

 them the loss of some birds is not a very 

 serious matter. 



The late Judge Caton of Illinois 

 (whose son was a classmate of the editor 

 of The Game Breeder at Yale) raised 

 many wild turkeys and made a long se- 

 ries of observations of birds which he 

 kept in confinement. "At various times," 

 he says, "he sent in all about forty wild 

 turkeys to California in the hope that it 

 may be acclimatized in the forests. Their 

 numerous enemies have thus far pre- 

 vented success in this direction." 



It would be necessary to turn down a 

 very large number of turkeys on a place 

 where their natural enemies are not con- 

 trolled in order to be sure of the birds 

 becoming established. It is a well known 

 *ule of game preserving that where only 

 a few birds are liberated in a place where 

 their enemies are superabundant the ene- 

 mies will get themi all. 



It is wise to thoroughly trap a place 

 where turkeys are to be introduced be- 

 fore the birds are turned down in the 

 wood and a beat keeper should be kept 

 on the ground to see that the enemies of 

 the game do not destroy it. 



At the Wading River Preserve of the 

 Game Breeders Association wild turkeys 



were reared in captivity or under control 

 in rearing fields, and also the birds bred 

 in a wild state. The keepers had, how- 

 ever, all they could do with the pheasants 

 and ducks and the wild turkeys after a 

 few were shot disappeared. Some were 

 taken by vermin. Some were shot out- 

 side the preserve. 



The experiment indicated that wild 

 turkeys easily can be bred both in cap- 

 tivity and in a wild state but the neces- 

 sity for looking after them properly in 

 order to preserve them was very evident. 



Mr. E. A. Mcllhenny in his excellent 

 book, "The Wild Turkey and Its Hunt- 

 ing," says: "There are thousands of 

 acres in the South which were once cul- 

 tivated, but which are now abandoned 

 and growing up with timber, brush and 

 grass, such country affords splendid op- 

 portunity for the rearing and perpetu- 

 ation of the wild turkey. These lands 

 are vastly superior for this purpose than 

 are the solid primeval forests, inasmuch 

 as they afford a great variety of summer 

 food, such as green, tender herbage, ber- 

 ries of many kinds, grasshoppers by the 

 million and other insects in which tur- 

 keys delight. Such a country also af- 

 fords good nesting retreats, with briar 

 patches and straw where the nest may be 

 safely hidden, and where the young birds 

 may secure safe hiding places from ani- 

 mals and birds of prey; but alas! not at 

 present from trappers, baiters and pot 

 hunters. Check these and the abandoned 

 plantations of the South would soon be 

 alive with turkeys." 



Mr. Mcllhenny might well have added 



