THE GAME BREEDER 



81 



the bottom, as it has no roots ; it usually 

 grows in rather quiet waters from 2 to 

 10 feet deep. The leaves are composed 

 of slender but rather stiff filaments, 

 twice or thrice forked, and sparingly 

 furnished with small acute projections. 

 They grow in whorls of from 5 to 12, 

 and are usually much crowded on the 

 upper part of the stem. 



The fruit of coontail (Fig. 23) is 

 composed of a rather large, flattened 

 seed, wedge-shaped at one end and 

 rounded at the other, inclosed in a thin 

 covering which bears various tubercles 

 on the surface and spines on the margin. 

 A common form has one spine at the 

 apex and one at each basal angle of the 

 fruit. One may examine many plants 

 without finding fruit; nevertheless, the 



frequency with which ducks find it 

 proves that a good crop is produced. 

 Coontail is known also as hornwort, 

 horn-weed, morass-weed, coontail moss, 

 fish-blankets and June grass. 



Coontail is practically cosmopolitan 

 and occurs throughout all but the ex- 

 treme northern parts of North America. 



Pieces of coontail broken off from the 

 parent plant promptly make new colo- 

 nies, a characteristic which makes trans- 

 planting easy. Care need be taken only 

 to see that the plants do not lose their 

 vitality either through drying or fermen- 

 tation during shipment. 



Plant in quiet water. As the plant has 

 no roots, it is enabled to thrive over 

 hard and sandy bottoms where many 

 other plants cannot establish themselves. 



PINIONED BIRDS AND THE GAME GUILD. 



It is advisable in ordering live birds to 

 state that pinioned birds are not wanted 

 if such be the case. Otherwise there 

 may be trouble. 



One of our advertisers in filling an 

 order for pheasants sent pinioned birds. 

 Since the purchaser wished to liberate 

 the birds on a club ground, for shooting, 

 he was much dissatisfied and the adver- 

 tiser suggested that the matter of dam- 

 ages be arbitrated by the editor of The 

 Game Breeder, and agreed to abide by 

 the result. 



We had a similar case recently when 

 pinioned wild ducks were shipped and 

 the club wished to have birds which 

 could fly. The claim in both cases was 

 made that since the birds were ordered 

 early in the year the presumption was 

 that they were desired for vbreeding pur- 

 poses. 



The editor of The Game Breeder does 

 not arbitrate controversies between ad- 

 vertisers and their customers for evident 

 reasons. Where one or both of the par- 

 ties are subscribing or contributing mem- 

 bers of the Game Conservation Society 

 and both wish to have their controversy 

 arbitrated the matter is referred to The 



Game Guild, which is a committee of the 

 Game Conservation Society, formed to 

 pass on numerous matters of interest to 

 the members of the Society. If the 

 Guild, for example, orders that the ad- 

 vertisement of an undesirable or dishon- 

 est dealer be not accepted it will not ap- 

 pear in the magazine. Any one who has 

 a complaint to make about unfair deal- 

 ing can make it to the magazine and the 

 matter will be promptly referred to the 

 Guild for investigation. The decision of 

 the Guild may be reviewed by the editors 

 and the directors of the Game Conser- 

 vation Society, provided either party is 

 not satisfied with the award or decision. 

 The managers of the magazine wish to 

 have reliable advertisers only; and no 

 unfair dealing will be tolerated. Since 

 the Game Conservation Society has been 

 formed to do good work in the way of 

 encouraging game breeding and it is sup- 

 ported by its members who are widely 

 distributed in all of the United States 

 and in the Provinces of Canada, it is 

 highly important that the members of 

 the Association should" be safeguarded 

 against wrong practices and we rely on 

 our readers to make complaints when 



