THE GAME BREEDER 



ir.i 



as to give the native quail and grouse a 

 chance. In the meantime those inter- 

 ested in these birds have kept Long 

 Island open to shooting and the shoot- 

 ing, paradoxical as it may seem, has 

 tended to increase the game. 



^'» 



QUAIL AND THE AUDUBON 

 SOCIETY. 



A writer for the bulletin of the Amer- 

 ican Protective Association says : "The 

 closed season on quail throughout the 

 year, that has prevailed, was contmued 

 at the last session of the Ohio legisla- 

 ture, over the protests of sportsmen, but 

 through their efforts the continuation 

 was for two years and not for ten, as 

 desired by the farmers or perpetual as 

 favored by the Audubon Society." 



We presume the reference must be to 

 the local Audubon Society since we are 

 assured the National Association is not 

 opposed to field sports or to sportsmen. 

 Whatever its attitude may have been in 

 the past it now has a department of 

 applied ornithology intended to encour- 

 age the profitable production of the wild 

 food birds. 



The United States Agricultural De- 

 partment has been pointing out to the 

 farmers the value of quail as destroyers 

 of insects and weed seeds and the farm- 

 ers everywhere, having become tired of 

 trespassing gunners who too often do 

 not heed trespass signs (and in fact 

 often shoot them up) have been quite 

 willing to put an end to shooting in 

 order to put an end to a nuisance. Na- 

 turalists are fully aware that where 

 shooting by a large army of guns is per- 

 mitted the extra check to increase is too 

 much for the game provided no one 

 looks after it and protects it from its 

 natural enemies. Since the sportsmen 

 must expect the prohibition of shooting 

 on the farm, if no game breeding is car- 

 ried on in order to keep up the supply, 

 many now are fully converted to the 

 idea that it pays to deal fairly with the 

 farmers and to look after the game. 



Since practical game protection costs 

 something even when the game is bred 

 wild in the fields, the shooting syndi- 

 cates should sell some of the game pro- 



duced to help pay expenses. Game pre- 

 serving heretofore has been, for the most 

 part, a rich man's game. We have al- 

 ways favored clubs with small dues and 

 we are much interested in a number of 

 these clubs which have an abundance of 

 game every year at a very small cost 

 per gun — in some cases only $15. 

 Advantage of Game Breeders Laws. 

 Sportsmen who are organized to se- 

 cure more game laws should not be 

 opposed to the industrious activities of 

 those who deal fairly with the farmers 

 and have very good shooting. Under 

 game breeders' laws they are permitted 

 to shoot big bags during long open sea- 

 sons and no one is damaged by such ac- 

 tivity because without it soon there 

 would be nothing to shoot. Long Island, 

 New York, has been saved, fortunately, 

 as an exhibit. Thousands of quail are 

 shot there every season not only on club 

 grounds but outside of them. There is 

 no quail shooting in the other counties 

 of the state. It should be remembered 

 that about one-twentieth of the entire 

 population of the United States resides 

 within a few miles of this good shoot- 

 ing, in the great city of New York. 

 It would be an easy matter to restore 

 quail shooting in the great central and 

 western states provided one gun club, 

 or one protective association in each 

 county, would provide a noisy sanctuary 

 for the members and insist, as they do 

 on Long Island, that the shooting pro- 

 hibition be removed from all the lands 

 in the county or state. The clubs look 

 after this matter and in providing shoot- 

 ing for their mem.bers they provide 

 shooting for all others, and they keep 

 the season open from year to year. Mis- 

 chief-makers have looked longingly at 

 Long Island. We have often caught 

 them gazing, but the fact that the bag 

 limit has been increased and that more 

 birds are shot every season and, best of 

 all, the numbers are increasing, is 

 enough to make a confirmed mischief- 

 maker worry. 



OUR POLICY. 



Many of the American game laws are 

 wrong in theory because they create 

 fanciful crimes in which the element of 



