110 



THE GAME BREEDER 



. ,1 



rent the shooting for a few cents per 

 acre and to look after the birds properly 

 — which means to employ a beat keeper 

 to control the hawks, crows and other 

 vermin, and to see that the quail have 

 some covers and suitable nesting places 

 and an abundance of food. The Game 

 Conservation Society often is consulted 

 about the formation of new clubs, the 

 cost, etc. There should be no possible 

 objection to sportsmen combining in 

 order to have excellent shooting on the 

 posted farms in the prohibition States. 

 The farmers quickly will join them and 

 aid in having the law amended so that 

 quail can be bred in good numbers and 

 shot during a long open season. When 

 it is desired to keep the annual dues 

 down, so that anyone can shoot, some 

 of the abundant quail should be sold to 

 help pay the shooting rent and the wages 

 of the keeper. It is absolutely necessary 

 to control the hawks, crows, cats, snakes 

 and many other enemies of the game in 

 order to keep it abundant to see that it 

 does not again go on the song bird list 

 when the shooting is lively. When the 

 natural enemies of the game eat birds 

 and eggs in large numbers it is not safe 

 to do any shooting because the birds 

 shot are always the stock birds left by 

 vermin for breeders. 

 *" It is highly desirable to shoot quail 

 in October when the weather is fine and 

 it is a pleasure to be out of doors. Sen- 

 sible game breeders' laws permit those 

 who look after their game to shoot dur- 

 ing long open seasons and they, of 

 course, fix their own bag limits, always 

 large, so as to leave some breeding stock 

 on the ground. 



Don't be afraid of anyone calling you 

 a duke or lord if you provide some good 

 quail shooting at say $25 per year. 



More About Wood Pigeons. 



Owen Jones says wood pigeons are the 

 wild fowl of waterless districts. I have 

 had my share of sport with wood pigeons 

 if I never have any more; also I have 

 missed my share of pigeons. The man 

 who can hit wood pigeons can hit any- 

 thing that flies. Not every man who 



has killed a brace from a covey of driven 

 partridges so that both birds have fallen 

 to the ground in front of him — to ac- 

 complish the feat at the expense of wood 

 pigeons coming straight is not so simple 

 as it seems. I never did it with part- 

 ridges but managed it with wood pigeons 

 once and once only. I came within an 

 ace of doing it a second time during 

 the last days in my keeper's berth but 

 the second bird fell, as it were, "on the 

 line." However, to serve a double at 

 wood pigeons, brings in my experience 

 of shooting as much satisfaction as any- 

 thing, no matter how or where the birds 

 fall. There is nothing like wood pigeon 

 shooting for teaching a man how to take 

 birds coming to him, and the habit of 

 aiming well forward, which is the key- 

 note of good work. * * * I have 

 lost several chances to d© great things 

 through shortage of cartridges. The 

 best of pigeon shooting is that it lasts 

 almost the year round, and that without 

 bringing about even a desirable decrease 

 in the number of birds. — Ten Years of 

 Gamekeeping. 



Partridges and Foxes. 



Owen Jones says, "Partridge shoot- 

 ing, if only because it is cheap, is bound 

 to remain the most popular form of 

 shooting; and since less can.be done to 

 prevent, or to make good, the damage 

 by foxes to partridges than to other 

 game, foxes must give way to par- 

 tridges." 



Our American quail or partridge un- 

 doubtedly can be handled as cheaply as 

 the gray partridges are and quail shoot- 

 ing (even in the prohibition States where 

 the bird is on the song bird list for a 

 term of years or forever) undoubtedly 

 will become the most popular form of 

 sport not only because it will be cheap 

 but because the quail is our best game 

 bird. 



Mexican Bobwhites. 



Experiments were made last year with 

 Mexican quail by the Massachusetts 

 Commission and the Sandwich and 

 Marshfield Bird Farms. The following 



