THE GAME BREEDER 



21 



would hardly seem to be a "proper regu- 

 lation" to limit a producer and prevent 

 him from harvesting an early crop if he 

 is enterprising enough to produce it. 

 Ducks are big eaters and it would be 

 unreasonable to compel an owner to keep 

 on feeding his fowls after they have be- 

 come big enough to fly well and to ap- 

 pear well on the table. Why compel an 

 owner to add 50 cents or more to the 

 cost of every duck he produces provided 

 he desires to save the extra expense by 

 harvesting part of his crop early ? 



Unsafe Fields. 



A big lot of penned pheasants, duck 

 and other game birds surely will attract 

 many game enemies. It is evident that 

 that adjacent fields are not very safe for 

 quail or other wild breeding birds or even 

 for the pheasants when they are liber- 

 ated. The game keeper in America has 

 a far more difficult work than the keep- 

 ers have in countries where there are 

 more game farms and preserves. Ver- 

 min comes to him from all four sides of 

 his ground and in wild regions where 

 there is much cover for vermin the won- 

 der is that the shooting can be made as 

 good as it often is. 



Good Quail Ground. 



The safest and easiest place to make 

 and keep quail plentiful is a region of 

 closely cultivated farms where there are 

 'no large wooded areas or covers for ver- 

 min, provided the cultivation of the 

 farms be suitable for the game. Wheat 

 and other grain farms are the best, of 

 course, since the quail thrive in the stub- 

 ble. There should, of course, be some 

 small covers for the game; hedges and 

 briars planted at the boundaries of the 

 fields provide excellent cover, nesting 

 sites and food at certain seasons of the 

 year. Vermin is far miore easily con- 

 trolled on cultivated farms than it is on 

 areas containing wooded tracts and lands 

 which are not tilled. 



Scaled Quail in Connecticut. 



Senator George P. McLean, of Con- 

 necticut, writes: ' 



"As to my experience with scaled 

 quail I will say that I had very good luck 



hatching and raising the birds four years 

 ago. I think ninety per cent, hatched 

 and came to maturity. The winter was 

 too much for some of them and when 

 the spring came and I stopped feeding 

 them they went sontewhere and didn't 

 return. I don't believe that any of them 

 bred. 



The second season we had a poor 

 hatch and the few birds that came to 

 maturity disappeared and I haven't heard 

 anything from them since. 



I have tried bob-whites, scaled quails 

 and Hungarian patridge and regretfully 

 come to the conclusion that the only bird 

 that will stay in northern Connecticut is 

 the ruffed grouse. The pheasants which 

 I have raised and which I have released, 

 clear out as soon as snow comes unless 

 they are fed." 



The fact that the experiment with the 

 scaled quail was a failure should not 

 prevent others from giving these birds a 

 trial. They can be procured in large 

 numbers from our advertisers and are 

 very good to shoot and to eat. It may 

 be that it will be found necessary to take 

 up the breeding stock and feed it in con- 

 finement in the winter. Possibly the birds 

 can be carried through the winter by 

 using a snow plow and feeding the birds 

 on the cleared areas as they feed the 

 bob-whites at some of the Long Island 

 clubs. One thing is certain that vermin 

 is superabundant in most parts of Con- 

 necticut, as elsewhere, when compared 

 with the few birds which often are used 

 for experiments. Hand-reared birds are 

 never as well equipped to escape their 

 natural enemies as birds bred in a wild 

 state are and when only a few hand- 

 reared birds are liberated it is probable 

 that vermin may take them all, just as 

 Darwin says birds will take all the grain 

 when only a few plants are planted. 



A small number of bantams or other 

 domestic fowls would hardly be expected 

 to survive if turned down in Connecticut 

 and left to shift for themselves, but 

 bantams no doubt can be reared in Con- 

 necticut, and I am inclined to believe that 

 if they be properly looked after and fed 

 in the winter and if proper shelters or 

 covers be provided, a wild breeding 

 strain of bantams might be established in 

 Connecticut. 

 Hand reared pheasants have been 



