142 



THE GAME BREEDER 



How many quail were actually killed we 

 ■do not know ; some, no doubt, escaped to 

 the asparagus beds and the tall weeds in 

 the garden, but the St. Swithin's rain 

 immediately was ushered in with a heavy 

 shower; it rained for five days with lit- 

 tle intermission and the little birds which 

 escaped probably perished since none re- 

 turned to the bantams. 



The game keeper when he observed 



the cat quickly went after it with the 



< gun, but our neigbbor appeared on the 



scene and it was deemed wise not to 



inflict the death penalty. A promise 

 was made that the cat would be locked 

 up for the rest of the season. We had 

 run a wire about our young ducks. For- 

 tunately we had many more young quail 

 and many eggs set under bantams. A 

 new line of coops has been placed in the 

 garden and last Sunday I enjoyed ob- 

 serving the young quail darting about in 

 the weeds in pursuit of insects, and run- 

 ning in and out of the coops to have a 

 little chat with their foster mothers. 



NOTES FROM THE GAME FARMS AND PRESERVES. 



King Birds. 



A number of King birds nested in the 

 orchard which adjoins the rearing fields 

 of the Long Island Association. Across 

 the road to the north there are numer- 

 ous crows which often make excursions 

 to the preserve but the little King birds 

 go aloft as soon as the black enemies 

 come in sight and it is interesting to see 

 how quickly they drive the crows away. 



Upon several occasions I have ob- . 

 served' the encounters. As the little birds 

 struck their enemies the crows croaked 

 at each blow and made haste to return 

 to their wood the King birds following 

 and striking them until they were out of 

 sight. Never, so far as we know, has a 

 crow been permitted to visit the rearing 

 fields or do any damage to the young 

 quail, pheasants and ducks. The crow as 

 all game preservers know, is an early 

 hunter. He sets out at daybreak and 

 hunts silently. But the King bird also is 

 awake and on guard at the first signs of 

 dawn and the martins are soon in the air 

 ready to drive away their enemies. 



The fields are guarded on two sides by 

 numerous dogs which live in kennels 

 strategetically placed. The dogs are held 

 by long chains which rattle when they 

 rush out of their kennels and the numer- 

 ous foxes and other ground enemies 

 have had no chance to dine on game. 



Very little vermin of any kind, except- 

 ing cats and snakes, has been killed and 

 there have been very few losses due to 

 vermin. The hawks secured only one 

 pheasant and, like the crows, seldom they 

 are seen near the game. 



A Call for Notes. 



We wish many of our readers would 

 write a few lines telling us about their 

 good and bad luck during the breeding 

 season. The reports which are beginning 

 to come in indicate that this will be by 

 far the biggest and most successful sea- 

 son since the "more game and fewer 

 game laws" idea was promulgated. 



We know how busy all game breeders 

 are at this season but it only takes a few 

 .minutes in the evening to record some of 

 the astonishing things which happen and 

 we are quite sure the notes of actual 

 occurrences are more interesting than 

 anything else which appears in the mag- 

 azine, not even excepting the advertise- 

 ments. 



Market Prices. 



All indications are that the prices for 

 quail, pheasants, clucks and other game 

 birds will be higher this year than ever 

 before. We are aware that there are 

 many more thousands of birds than there 



