THE GAME BREEDER 



19 



take grouse in this manner or to prevent 

 considerable illegal shooting with a war- 

 den force such as provided for by the 

 States. When the birds have become 

 .scarce it should be evident there are not 

 enough to supply the needs of the 

 numerous natural enemies. If any snar- 

 ing or illegal shooting goes on, as it 

 surely does, nature's balance is badly 

 upset and the closed season, undesirable 

 as it is, cannot be expected to produce 

 the desired result. 



One reason why it is easier to pre- 

 serve deer in public woods is the evi- 

 dence of crime is bigger and more apt to 

 be discovered than it is in the case of 

 smaller game which can be pocketed. 

 Another and an important reason that 

 the deer have few natural enemies which 

 formerly checked their increase. The 

 wolves and in some States the mountain 

 lions and wild cats are gone, and the 

 eagles which took many small deer are 

 scarce. As a result the deer can in- 

 crease in suitable woods during closed 

 seasons. But there are places where the 

 crows alone are sufficient to prevent an 

 increase of the grouse. In all proba- 

 bility many grouse are shot in violation 

 of law even in remote regions. The 

 shooting of a few we should remember 

 is too. many in all cases where the grouse 

 are scarce when compared with their 

 abundant natural enemies. 



It is remarkable how well the grouse 

 hold out on populous Long Island since 

 the game preserving on many of the pre- 

 served areas is not nearly as thorough as 

 it should be and there are entirely too 

 many cats. We saw some very big ones 

 recently which were taken in traps. 



Our Prairie Grouse Experiment. 



The Game Conservation Society has 

 expended over one hundred dollars so 

 far this season in the effort to get a few 

 pairs of prairie grouse. Since the money 

 was sent to State officers in some cases, 

 and in others the birds were hunted up 

 and located on farms in several States 

 whose owners say they will ship them, 

 it would seem likely that our grouse 

 breeding experiments will proceed next 

 season, the birds being procured in time. 



We have many disappointments about 

 the prairie grouse — about one a week on 

 the average. The worst one consisted of 

 a refusal of an officer (who said he could 

 get us some chickens) either to produce 

 the birds or the money sent to him. 

 Registered letters remain unanswered. 

 We hope it will not be necessary for us 

 to publish the correspondence and an il- 

 lustration showing the check which went 

 through the banks and the endorse- 

 ment. This will not be done for an- 

 other month when we expect to make 

 some reports which should contain this 

 item of expense. Possibly the money 

 may be returned in the meantime. 



Today we have a letter from a dealer 

 in the West who promised to send us 

 prairie chickens. He says, "The scarcity 

 of man power has made it impossible to 

 secure enough skilled help even to take 

 care of our breeding birds. This scarcity 

 of men makes it impractical to attempt 

 to trap the birds" (chicken). 



Another letter in today's mail is much 

 more encouraging and we hope to an- 

 nounce the arrival of the chickens in 

 our next Issue. 



If this note about chickens meets the 

 eye of our friend Dr. Fisher, he will 

 be reminded of some recent correspond- 

 ence in which he referred pleasantly to 

 our remarks about his plea for the breed- 

 ing of grouse. We are well prepared to 

 do the breeding but we must have some 

 birds to lay the eggs. Think of a pro- 

 tective system, good in many ways, 

 which prevents the securing of the birds 

 or eggs of a common species for breed- 

 ing purposes ! 



Something About Crows. 



The City Point correspondent of the 

 Bangor News has the following to say 

 on the crow question : 



Crows are more tame and troublesome 

 this year than ever before. Very early 

 in the spring they began to get familiar, 

 and we saw them many times in the 

 trees surrounding the houses, and were 

 awakened in the early morning by their 

 unmusical conversation. We have a 

 friend up in the White Mountains who 

 has made a study of crow language, and 



