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THE GAME BREEDER 



Since the wood duck is such excellent 

 food it will quickly become tremendously 

 abundant when the sportsmen are sure 

 that it will pay to get busy. 



Buffaloes. 



There seems to be only a very small 

 demand for bison and the market would 

 seem to be over supplied. As a sporting 

 animal they have seen their best days. 

 Vast plains and very wild buffaloes 

 which tested the capacity of good horses 

 were just right for sport, but no one 

 cares to shoot a buffalo in a park and the 

 meat is not very desirable. 



The offering of Mr. Leach in the 

 August Game Breeder is the only offer 

 of bison which has come to our notice 

 recently, and we have not yet had a re- 

 port as to the result from the adver- 

 tisement. 



Near Mallards. 



The near mallard, which was pur- 

 chased and shot in large numbers when 

 nothing else could be had, suffered from 

 the comments about its bad behavior on 

 many shoots and now that more speedy 

 birds are obtainable there is small de- 

 mand for the slow ducks. Breeders 

 have introduced trapped birds to advan- 

 tage and have much improved the char- 

 acter of their birds where any near mal- 

 lards were held for breeding purposes. 



Northern Quail. 



The few northern quail offered 

 brought almost any price the breeder 

 chose to ask for them. Many are held 

 for breeding purposes and are not for 

 sale. 



Mexican Quail. 



Mexican quail no doubt will sell well 

 as soon as the authorities are willing to 

 open the market for this food bird. 

 There have been many complaints about 

 the arbitrary rulings limiting the open 

 season for importations. It seems in- 

 comprehensible that any objections 

 should be made to food production. The 

 fact that the price of the food is high 

 should not affect the matter because there 

 are people who will pay good prices and 



they leave the less expensive foods for 

 others, and also the food quickly will 

 become cheap when it becomes very 

 abundant, as it surely will. 



Those who advertised quail in The 

 Game Breeder all reported they were 

 swamped with orders and were obliged 

 to return a lot of money. They report 

 that on account of a dry season the quail 

 seem to be scarce and that they hold 

 enough orders to take all the birds they 

 expect to get, and those whose orders 

 were in last season must be supplied first. 

 It seems likely that bob-whites will sell 

 for $30 a dozen. Scaled and Gambel's 

 will bring lower prices until experiments 

 made by the Long Island Game Breeders' 

 Association and other shooting clubs we 

 have persuaded to give these birds a 

 trial report if the birds can be estab- 

 lished and made a good sporting propo- 

 sition in. the north. The price meantime 

 will be $15 or $20 for these birds and 

 perhaps more. 



The Long Island Association will shoot 

 these birds for a second time the coming 

 season, but so few birds were obtained 

 last year that it is uncertain if they have 

 been established as wild breeding birds. 

 A few wintered quite near the house 

 and we have a report of one being seen 

 by a careful observer fifteen miles away 

 and others nearer the preserve. We 

 never have had much confidence in ex- 

 periments made with only a few birds, 

 especially on a ground where the shoot- 

 ing is opened too soon. 



Deer. 



The price of deer is a little higher than 

 last year ; $25 to $35 each. 



Rabbits. 



Often we have requests for informa- 

 tion as to where cotton-tails can be pro- 

 cured. Usually these requests come 

 from quail clubs and other owners of 

 upland "shoots." 



It would seem that since rabbits are 

 so abundant as to be a pest in some parts 

 of the country that there should be plenty 

 of them for sale at reasonable prices. 

 They are a good animal to introduce and 

 keep plentiful on any shooting ground, 



