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THE GAME BREEDER 



surate with the expenditures of money. 

 One reason for this may be the pugnacity 

 of native game species. Wherever other 

 varieties of game birds not native to 

 California have been introduced on 

 lands where California valley quail live, 

 failure has always followed. This bird 

 will always fight against the usurpation 

 of his territory by other birds. It will 

 attack a cock pheasant as readily as a 

 small bird.- Hence there are good rea- 

 sons why it should be the one dominant 

 game bird. 



The following instance of pugnacity 

 on the part of the valley quail has come 

 to my notice. Mr. Hollenbeck, of Ryei 

 Island, California, who is a great lover 

 of birds and animals, encouraged a large 

 band of quail to remain on his land by 

 prohibiting shooting. He fed the birds 

 every few days, and they became so ' 

 tame that they even came inside the 

 house when called. In fact, they were 

 so tame as to almost be a nuisance. 

 Knowing Mr. Hollenbeck's fondness for 

 birds, I obtained for him some ring- 

 necked pheasants. The quail, however, 

 have driven away these pheasants, so 

 that they are now to be found only in 

 localities where quail are not found. 



There may still be another reason why 

 introduced game has not increased. Many 

 people believe that all that is necessary 

 in the introduction of a game bird into 

 any locality is just a matter of securing 

 the species to be introduced, giving the 

 birds their liberty and awaiting favor- 

 able results. But the fact that a Master 



Hand has not only distributed game 

 birds and animals, but has adjusted the 

 flora and fauna of the universe to cer- 

 tain life zones most suited to their ex- 

 istence, is often overlooked. We must 

 know the conditions and seek to intro- 

 duce such birds as will thrive under 

 them. No game bird has as yet been 

 introduced into California which has 

 proven to be adapted to the geographical 

 and climatic conditions obtaining here. 



One of the principal reasons for our 

 failure in the introduction of game 

 birds in the past has been that none but 

 ground-roosting birds have been selected. 

 As a result they have been attacked^ by 

 predatory animals. These latter are 

 possibly of a larger variety and more 

 numerous in California than in any other 

 State. The valley quail has at some 

 time had to adapt itself to these condi- 

 tions. This bird is now a tree or bush- 

 roosting bird, and this makes it practi- 

 cally immune from the depredations of 

 these numerous animals. On the other 

 hand the Hungarian partridge, bobwhite, 

 pheasant and other quails are ground- 

 roosting birds. Therefore these birds 

 are subject to depredations from the 

 many animals which roam and feed at 

 night and cannot obtain the foothold 

 which they should in CaHfornia. 



Let us keep in mind our experiences 

 of the past and see that birds more 

 suited to our conditions are introduced 

 — or, better still, that such hardy birds 

 as the California valley quail are sufifi- 

 ciently protected to make stocking with 

 foreign game birds unnecessary. 



NOTES FROM THE GAME FARMS AND PRESERVES. 



One of our New York wild duck 

 breeders writes : "1 have a great deal of 

 trouble with the wire enclosures which 

 I had for my ducks as the wire rots out 

 in one season when it is in the water. 

 Can you tell me where we can get the 

 best wire for this purpose? I have the 

 regular one-inch galvanized mesh wire 

 but it does not seem to be much good." 



The letter was referred to the supply 



department. There seems to be two 

 methods of galvanizing wire one of 

 which is much better than the other. 

 It has been said that none of the galvan- 

 ized wire made recently is as good as 

 the wire made a few years ago, and that 

 most of it rusts quickly. We should 

 know what wire is the best and we shall 

 be glad to hear from our readers if any 

 of them have found a wire which will 



