178 



THE GAME BREEDER 



neck pheasant. Grouse have all but be- 

 come extinct ; woodcock are becoming 

 scarcer and scarcer ; quail are very sel- 

 dom seen. If it were not for pheasant 

 one could hunt day after day in many 

 sections and his dog would never have 

 a chance to freeze on a point. 



The ringneck pheasant is perhaps the 

 easiest game bird to raise in captivity. 

 This is an important point in its favor. 

 After the first few weeks pheasant are 

 about as difficult to grow as chickens. 

 The State has already done some good 

 work with these birds, and the sections 

 in which they have been released have 

 afforded some excellent sport. 



I confess that the English pheasant is 

 far from being a perfect game bird. He 

 does not lie well to a dog and often fre- 

 quents land that is under water, thus 

 making it hard for a dog to pick up the 

 scent ; but when brought to bag he is ex- 

 tremely beautiful and a splendid bird on 

 the table. He appears easier to hit than 

 he really is, and taken all in all is a far 

 more satisfactory game bird than none 

 would be. — The Sun. 



Egg Percentages. 



Those who have been provident and 

 who have held over a good stock of 

 breeding birds are fortunate since the 

 prices of pheasants, wild ducks, quail 

 and turkeys are higher than ever before, 

 and it is evident they will go higher and 

 that many can not procure breeding stock 

 at any price. There is a great temptation 

 always to shoot more birds than good 

 management would allow but fortunately 

 the big commercial game farms have 

 held many thousands of birds and hun- 

 dreds of thousands of eggs will be sold 

 this spring. We doubt, however, if there 

 will be enough early eggs to supply the 

 demands since many new game farms 

 and new shooting clubs and individual 

 preserves are being started all over the 

 country. 



Those who rely on purchased eggs are 

 interested in egg percentages. Owen 

 Jones, one of the best English authori- 

 ties, says, "If eighty eggs hatch out in 

 a hundred this is considered good ; if 

 less than seventy hatch this is bad. A 



keeper may congratulate himself if he 

 turns a thousand pheasants into covert 

 from fifteen hundred eggs set ; anything 

 below one bird turned into covert from 

 two eggs is considered a poor result. 

 Keepers believe that chicks cannot be 

 hatched too late in May or too early in 

 June." 



There can be no doubt that eggs laid 

 on the ground are better than purchased 

 eggs ; the percentage of birds hatched 

 will be somewhat better frcrr. heme eggs 

 than from those shipped but we have had 

 excellent results from purchased eggs in 

 our experimental , work , and the adver- 

 tisers in The Game Breeder know how 

 to pack and ship eggs safely. 



Contract Rearing. 



We have heard from a number of ad- 

 vertisers that they have received, substan- 

 tial contracts from our readers for 

 pheasants to be reared and delivered in 

 September and October. Some of the 

 prices named in letters to the magazine 

 are $1.75 and $2.00 per bird, September 

 and October delivery. 



A Good Order. 



One advertiser writing to praise the 

 results obtained from his advertisement 

 says he has just received an order for 

 5,000 pheasants for October delivery, the 

 price being $8 per trio. He says he has 

 recently received oth.er good orders for 

 an aviry species. We are always glad to 

 hear that advertisements produce good 

 results. 



Wild Ducks. 



A number of our advertisers will trap 

 wild ducks for breeding purposes under 

 permits issued by the U. S. Biological 

 Survey. The demand for ducks is so 

 great, however, that it seems evident 

 there will not be enough to supply all 

 those who wish to undertake duck breed- 

 ing. 



Some readers have reported that they 

 could not get all the ducks and eggs they 

 wish to purchase for breeding purposes. 



