THE GAME BREEDER 



106 



MENTAL RECREATION IN GAME BREEDING. 



By G. H. Corsan. 



Game breeding is such a fascinating 

 hobby that in a very few years the few 

 thousands now engaged in it will grow 

 to many thousands. It is an expensive 

 hobby if one wishes to go into it sud- 

 denly, but entered by degrees it can 

 readily be made a wonderfully good pay- 

 ing business. It pays a person if they 

 get pleasure out of it even if they don't 

 make money out of it. I am sure that 

 the Great Geometrician of the universe 

 must endorse the plan of the game breed- 

 ers to restock this continent with beau- 

 tiful utility birds. 



But skunks come around and the great 

 horned owl and the mink and weasel 

 have to be fought. Very well, they are 

 far from discouraging to me. I love to 

 fight and I love to kill injurious crea- 

 tures ; and I trap and I shoot and I 

 poison and I use my brains to destroy 

 the enemies of the game farm. 



The great horned owl has killed pigs 

 twice to my knowledge and a full grown 

 mute swan once and I have set my hand 

 against it, and I trap it on posts by 

 erecting the head and neck of a guinea 

 fowl with wire, then nailing the wings 

 on each side of the post and the tail 

 behind, on the top of the post and in the 

 center lies the jump trap; then good-by 

 Mr. Great Horned Owl. 



But should the varmint kill, then the 

 traps lie around the kill to the number 

 of eight and he may snap seven but the 

 eighth has him fast. And stake the 

 traps down well for he has tremendous 

 strength, as any bird must have that can 

 kill a full grown house cat or skunk. 

 The first night the owl pulls off the 

 head and neck of the toughest kind of 

 a bird and swallows it whole. Then he 

 pulls out the entrails from the breast 

 and devours them. The next night he 

 visits the kill to have a second feast. So 

 tie the kill to the ground tightly, unless 

 you want to eat the kill yourself, then 

 leave legs, wings, feathers and tail in 

 the very same spot. Cover feathers 



lightly over the traps. He is a stupid 

 bird and will be there in the morning 

 spitting and looking like a real hun. 



You may also go out to the nearby 

 pine and hemlock woods and find him 

 at roost by day but on the lookout and 

 quite well able to see. And he also 

 hunts by day and can kill a bird that 

 is not tough in an extraordinary short 

 time. 



This bird in the photograph killed my 

 blue, snow and black brant geese leaving 

 me the ganders. But the Canada gan- 

 ders will fight him and he leaves them 

 alone. As watch dogs and alarm clocks 

 they take the place of the guinea fowl at 

 night time. 



Snow geese are being bred now and 

 I feel that it is up to me to breed blue 

 geese and whistler swans. But first get 

 .the birds. Secondly have a suitable 

 place. Third use judgment and don't 

 overfeed the birds as they are fed at the 

 zoos, nor crowd them up too much. 



Tennis and golf, etc., may have their 

 valuable side for drawing a man's mind 

 off business and family worries, but they 

 are not to be at all compared to the 

 power that lies in game breeding. The 

 fresh air, the exercise and the mental 

 satisfaction of accomplishing something 

 not only difficult but rare. 



One day a few years ago I was motor- 

 ing in Northern Indiana and Southern 

 Michigan when I saw a very beautiful, 

 tall young woman as straight as an 

 Indian. I stopped the machine and I 

 watched her — for I knew that she was 

 someone unusual. I did not have long 

 to stop before I heard a wonderful clear 

 voice call out, "Birdie!" "Birdie!" 

 "B-irdie!" Then what should appear 

 free, and from all kinds of cover? 

 Scores of most beautiful pheasants of 

 some dozen varieties as well as pea- 

 fowl. 



We — for we were a machine full — 

 jumped out and walked over and had a 

 long talk with Miss Helen Bartlett. 



