THE GAME BREEDER 



71 



state offered a bounty of fifty cents for 

 each crow killed. The state paid out 

 about a hundred thousand dollars in 

 bounties before it repealed the law. It 

 was discovered that rats, mice and other 

 pests had increased alarmingly ; and the 

 generally approved estimate was that 

 this bounty law had cost the farmers over 

 two million dollars, as well as costing 

 the state over a hundred thousand dol- 

 lars. Illinois had a crow-bounty law at 

 one time, and was glad to take it off 

 the books. Enterprising gentlemen of 

 other states were shipping in crows in 

 car lots. They found that the crow had 

 its place in the plans of Nature — Sat- 

 urday Evening Post. 



Wanted a Permit. 



One of our western readers writes, "I 

 did want a permit to trap ducks so much 

 but now the birds soon will be setting. 

 There is no other naturalist that I could 

 get to indorse me as I am the only man 

 in this neighborhood that I know of who 

 breeds game and I would need two sign- 

 ers to indorse me or recommend me." 

 We think it might be a good plan to 

 amend the regulations so that those who 

 wish to produce thousand of wild fowl 

 can secure permits to take live birds for 

 breeding purposes. 



It_ seems peculiar not to require shoot- 

 ers to get the indorsement of two well- 

 known ornithologists, who have known 

 them for years, before they can shoot 

 twenty-five ducks per day and to require 

 a game breeder to secure such indorse- 

 ment before he can take twenty-five 

 ducks alive in order to produce hun- 

 dreds of ducks. 



The late Dr. Judd, one of the best as- 

 sistants the Biological Survey ever had, 

 said in a bulletin that the laws prohibit- 

 ing the trapping of quail should always 

 provide for the trapping of the birds 

 for breeding purposes. 



Conflict About Permits. 



When the United States issues a per- 

 mit to take wild fowl and eggs for breed- 

 ing purposes it certainly will seem pe- 

 culiar to the holder of such permit if a 

 state game warden decides to arrest him 



for his attempt to produce food on his 

 farm. We would not care to insure the 

 continuance of a state officer in office 

 should he arrest a game breeder and we 

 hope any game breeder holding a na- 

 tional permit who may be interfered with 

 by a state official will promptly report 

 the matter to the Game Breeder. We 

 are able to pass news of this character 

 directly to the farmers and to intelligent 

 sportsmen. 



More Laws. 



The sportsman's league of Pennsylva- 

 nia strongly favors twenty-two new 

 game laws which have been introduced 

 and which are outlined in its legislative 

 bulletin. It demands amendments to 

 or opposes other bills, eight in number, 

 and it lists fourteen proposed laws which 

 have not been passed on by the league. 

 Quite a swell bunch of new laws for 

 Pennsylvania ! 



We are surprised that so few new 

 laws are needed to satisfy the Pennsyl- 

 vania appetitie for legislation this year. 

 Now that the ruffed grouse is on the 

 scng bird list and the Pennsylvania foxes 

 and other "varmints" have probably eat- 

 en up any Mexican quail winch survived 

 the cold spring weather one would think 

 that the sport of getting more game laws 

 in Pennsylvania might produce bigger re- 

 sults. Possibly the fewer game law idea 

 may have affected the league. 



In addition to the new laws proposed 

 by individuals and leagues there is a big 

 bill called the Conservation Department 

 Bill, which the league wishes to have 

 amended in many places. These meas- 

 ures should keep the Pennsylvania leg' 

 islators busy for a long session. 



Wild Ducks in Minnesota. 



One of our Minnesota readers writes : 

 "It has always seemed to the writer that 

 we are too far north and our winters are 

 too cold to engage in this business 

 (breeding wild ducks) successfully. It 

 would be too expensive to winter over 

 the breeding stock. What do you think 

 about this?" 



We think there is no state in the 

 union where wild duck breeding can be 



