112 



THE GAME BREEDER 



The question now arises, Who is the 

 guilty party? I say the hawk, because 

 as I said before his reputation is bad, 

 very bad, and I positively know that he 

 steals several hundred dollars' worth of 

 young chickens and turkeys each season 

 from the farmers in this section. 



A farmer friend of mine called me up 

 just a few days ago and told me he 

 thought he knew where there was a 

 marsh hawk's nest, because he says, 



"These hawks come and pick a 



chicken right out from under our feet 

 and they do it each day and are abso- 

 lutely not afraid to do it either." Well, 

 I went right out to the farmer and he 

 pointed out an old straw stack about half 

 a mile off and said, "That is where they 

 take my quality Rhode Island Reds," 

 and sure enough there were the remains 

 of several chicks, a female hawk over- 

 head and a nice setting of five eggs not 

 100 feet away. 



Another farmer also called me up some 

 time ago and said he'd give any man 

 $5.00 who would go out and kill the 

 hawk that was taking an average of ten 

 nice young chicks each day. Well, I 

 went out, not for the $5.00 but for eggs, 

 and sure enough, found a nest with a 



setting of five in a creek bottom. I shot 

 the female, and that man hasn't lost a 

 chick since, although they did get some 

 40 out of his first hatch. 



On June 9th I saw a marsh hawk try- 

 ing to steal a young turkey right in the 

 presence of the mother, who made sev- 

 eral attempts to lay out the offender by 

 jumping up three or four feet in the air 

 after it, but the hawk was too fast for 

 her and when I ran up, flew away with 

 empty talons. It took a Scotch Collie 

 and I all we could do to stop one of 

 them from stealing a pound chicken not 

 100 feet away from a farm house last 

 spring and if it hadn't been for the piece 

 of poultry netting that the chick ran 

 under he would have gotten him sure, 

 regardless of my yelling and the dog 

 barking, not more than 20 feet away. 

 But revenge was ours, as his five young 

 ones paid the penalty in a clump of wil- 

 lows a half mile away. 



The grand old prairie hen is just about 

 a thing of the past here and I believe 

 that the marsh hawk is just as much and 

 more to blame than the crow we hear 

 so much about and offer a bounty on. 



The marsh hawk may like mice but he 

 likes young chickens or turkey much 

 better. — The Oologist. 



THE SAGE GROUSE. 



Opinion of Dr. A. K. Fisher, 

 U. S. Biological Survey. 



The sage grouse, once a common and 

 an abundant wild food bird on our vast 

 western plains where the artemesia or 

 wild sage grows abundantly, is doomed 

 to extinction unless the states in which 

 it is found awaken and give it pro- 

 tection. 



So says Dr. A. K. Fisher of the U. S. 

 Biological Survey in a newspaper clip- 

 ping sent to The Game Breeder by a 

 member of the Game Conservation So- 

 ciety. Dr. Fisher also is of the opinion 

 that the ruffed grouse, the prairie chick- 

 en and the sharp-tailed grouse are pass- 

 ing away. 



As objects of sport and as articles of 



food these American grouse already 

 have passed away. They can, however, 

 quickly be made tremendously abundant 

 both for sport and for food. Regard- 

 ing the sage grouse Dr. Fisher says: "I 

 have an idea that the sage hen would 

 make a very good domesticated fowl, 

 and I am hoping that in some of our 

 Western preserves within a very short 

 time experiments will be made toward 

 that end. Audubon mentions that prairie 

 chickens were easy to breed, and states 

 that he had large numbers in enclosures 

 near Henderson, Ky.; in fact, they 

 thrived so well that they became a nui- 

 sance and were killed off. Later Dr. 



