T^! Game Breeder 



Published Monthly. Entered as second-class matter. July 9. 1915, at the Post Office, New York City, 



New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



VOLUME VII 



AUGUST/I9J5 

 SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



NUMBER 5 



Wild Fowl at Great Bend. 



The Great Bend, Kansas, Tribune con- 

 tains some good suggestions about the 

 restoration of wild fowl in Kansas. 



There was a time when the Great Bend 

 country was the greatest hunting ground and 

 natural game preserve to be found any- 

 where. * * * gy^ where are the game 

 birds and animals that made this valley a 

 hunter's paradise ? You answer that they have 

 gone the way of the Indian and the buffalo. 

 The Indian was given reservations in various 

 parts of the United States and accorded pro- 

 tection of the government and offered everv 

 opportunity for his betterment. The buffalo 

 has also received the protection of the law 

 and efforts in various localities made to con- 

 serve them by establishing ranches and pre- 

 serves for their protection and propagation. 

 But what of the wild fowl? Are they given 

 any effective protection anywhere ? Can they 

 be propagated here in the midst of modern 

 civiHzation ? The sportsmen and game men of 

 Kansas and the Middle West say yes and call 

 attention to the wild bird farm of George J. 

 Klein to verify the statement. 



Mr. Klein is a member of the Game 

 Conservation Society and has reared and 

 sold thousands of wild fowl. The Great 

 Bend Tribune evidently is a wide-awake 

 and enterprising newspaper and the copy 

 containing the story about Mr. Klein 

 contains many good half-tones which il- 

 lustrate not only Mr. Klein's game farm 

 but many other industries. We predict 

 it will not be long before prairie grouse 

 and quail are bred in large numbers and 

 that the farmers and sportsrnen will find 

 these birds very profitable as they are 

 in many places throughout America. 

 The quail now more than pay all the 

 taxes on hundreds of thousands of acres 

 where they are properly looked after be- 

 cause it pays to do so. Kansas should 

 have a game breeder's law similar to the 

 laws in other States which have made 

 game breeding profitable and the game 

 abundant. 



Another Gogd Bulletin. 



The American Game Protective Asso- 

 ciation has issued another good bulletin 

 which contains reports from a number 

 of State game officers showing a good 

 stock of pheasants. There is a story 

 about the visit ai Colonel Theodore 

 Roosevelt to a Louisiana bird reservation 

 which is illustrated by a picture of the 

 Colonel examining a Royal Tern's egg 

 and a snapshot showing a flight of the 

 birds which have been disturbed by their 

 distinguished visitor. Page three is de- 

 voted to an announcement indicating 

 that the association proposes to help keep 

 up the interest in game breeding "in cap- 

 tivity." We hope in time the association 

 will not be opposed to the activities of 

 members of the Game Conservation So- 

 ciety who prefer to breed their game 

 wild in protected fields. Hundreds of 

 thousands of quail are now bred in this 

 way by readers of The Game Breeder, 

 and they are better birds in our opinion 

 for sport and for profit than any birds 

 bred "in captivity." The gray partridges 

 abroad are reared most successfully wild 

 in protected fields. Since the committee 

 on breeding is made up of readers of 

 The Game Breeder we will have a chance 

 to talk to them from time to time and 

 we have no doubt they will agree to 

 abandon the "in captivity" idea which 

 too often means disease, expense and 

 failure when applied to certain species 

 which are not easily hand-reared. 



Ruffed Grouse Breeding. 



The bulletin above referred to dis- 

 cusses the desirability of ruffed grouse 

 breeding and expresses the hope that this 

 bird may be bred as the pheasants are. 

 Grouse breeding abroad is highly suc- 

 cessful, but the grouse are not handled 



