106 THE GAME BREEDER 



and put them with a bantam hen. The experience has cost me a good deal. How- 

 photograph I send you was made of ever, I do not believe the day is far off 

 some of these fourteen birds. when game breeding will be looked after 

 I have lost very few. They can be with a great deal of interest. A number 

 reared in large numbers successfully, of our people are beginning to realize 

 I do not believe they can be profitably that quail shooting will soon be another 

 raised for certainly not less than $25 one of the past sports if game farms are 

 per dozen. Owing to the laws of our not established. 



State I have not been allowed to realize I expect to restock some of this sec- 



anything from my birds, although the tion this spring. 



THE PRAIRIE GROUSE. 



Second Paper. 



By DwiGHT W. Huntington. 



The late Dr. Sylvester D. Judd per- grouse shooting' in Indiana and I used to 



formed a great public service when he shoot in the Dakotas when the prairie 



wrote the bulletin on "The Grouse and grouse was extending its range to the 



Wild Turkeys of the United States, and northwest, and bagged some of the 



Their Economic Value." This bulletin prairie grouse when shooting its northern 



was issued by the U. S. Department of relative, the sharp-tailed grouse, which 



Agriculture in 1905 as Biological Survey were at the time tremendously abundant 



Bulletin No. 24. in the Dakotas, Montana, and many 



Inviting attention to the fact that the other States, westward to the Pacific 



prairie hen was nearly or quite gone Ocean. 



from large areas in the West, where it Since 1905 the restrictive laws, to 

 was numerous a few years ago, and that which Dr. Judd referred, have been mul- 

 a number of our game birds are now tiplied; the seasons have been made 

 gone or fast disappearing from their for- shorter ; the bag limits have been made 

 mer haunts, Dr. Judd said: "An awaken- smaller; and, in some States, the shoot- 

 ing appreciation of the real value of ing of prairie grouse has been prohibited 

 some of the species and of the indirect for years. Those familiar with the 

 danger of their extermination is evinced grouse are well aware as the country be- 

 by protective laws that have been enacted comes more densely populated they have 

 in recent years throughout the country, decreased in numbers almost every- 

 These laws are mainly the outcome of a where and on vast areas they have be- 

 realization of the value of the birds from come extinct. The reasons why the laws 

 the sportsman's point of view. The in- do not produce the desired results and 

 vestigations upon which the present re- make the game plentiful are well known 

 port is based show that the farmer has to naturalists and to sportsmen who 

 a vastly greater interest at stake in the read The Game Breeder. When the ad- 

 increase and protection of some of these ditional check to the increase of the 

 birds, notably the bobwhite, than has the grouse (shooting) is added to the ordi- 

 sportsman. The importance of the nary checks to their increase (vermin), 

 prairie hen as a destroyer of weeds and the grouse must vanish because nature's 

 insects has been demonstrated and its balance is upset in the wrong direction, 

 value as a food and game bird is well There are other reasons why the grouse 

 known." must go more quickly than the quail 



I had the opportunity to shoot the when any shooting is permitted. They 



prairie grouse when they were abundant are birds of the open country, easily 



in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska and some found and followed with the aid of good 



other States. I have had some good dogs and they are large and correspond- 



