128 



THE GAME BREEDER 



Breeder, also the response of my good 

 friend Mr. Huntington. I still stick to 

 what I said in my former letter to you : 

 build small pens 10 x 10 or 10 x 12 

 that will hold five birds or six each. 

 Suppose you have 20O birds and build 

 an aviary as suggested in Game Breeder, 

 this aviary would have to be 40 feet 

 wide and at least 150 to 200 feet long. 

 The posts would have to be of very 

 heavy material to support the beams 

 which would have to be at least 6 x 10 

 or 8 x 12, so as to hold up such a wide 

 roof of wire when heavy snows and 

 sleets come, the posts that supported 

 this would have to be braced and in the 

 inside of pen also have supporting posts 

 for these beams before you attempt to 

 build you submit to some contractor and 

 I bet it will cost $1,000 or more. What 

 ruins this pheasant game is the over- 

 head charges. Now take my plan, you 

 could build for 200 birds, 40 of these 

 movable pens, they would cost not ex- 

 ceeding $5 each, never have to spade 

 ground when it becomes foul, simply 

 move pen or aviary. Again, if any 

 bird or pen should become infected 

 merely move this pen away from the 

 others. Again, it obviates green feed- 

 ing, which is necessary. Move the pen 

 every week on fresh sod and they have 

 their green. It is never necessary to 

 go in an aviary except save for two 

 months in the year, and that during lay- 

 ing season. Advantages may be sum- 

 marized as follows : 



"First. Vastly cheaper. 



"Second. More sanitary. 



"Third. Green feed without having to 

 spade up the aviary or grow in a garden 

 to furnish for feed. 



Suppose your large aviary should be- 

 come foul, what are you going to do? 



"Suppose roup or some other disease 

 which does happen, breaks out, what 

 would you do? 



"Irrespective of what any one else 

 says, and I have no quarrel with them, 

 each pheasant should have at least 20 

 sq. ft., at the least. I know you will 

 say this talk of Ij^ by 1^4 sufficient, but 

 nothing doing for me. Of course where 

 you have an expert like Duncan Dunn 



of New Jersey State Game Farm, with, 

 plenty of assistants and who can detect 

 disease in its incipency, these stationary- 

 pens may do, but to the amateur I say, 

 lookout." 



The Protection of Nests. 



The Rev. H. A. Macpherson, one of 

 the ablest English writers on the natural 

 history of English game birds, says : 

 "Some sportsmen think it unlucky to 

 find a partridge's nest. Certainly it is 

 best that the majority of nests should 

 escape attention altogether. ' The 

 chances of the young birds chipping the 

 eggshells successfully is materially in- 

 creased by their complete seclusion. 

 The misfortunes which attend the dis- 

 covery of a nest of eggs are not diffi- 

 cult to understand. If symptoms of hu- 

 man interference exist, as shown in 

 broken twigs and trampled herbage, 

 the curiosity of stoats and other ground 

 vermin is arrested. Even a field mouse 

 is curious to know why any little change 

 has occurred in his preserves ; his peer- 

 ing eyes often discover a dicky bird's 

 nest that we had left, we had fancied in 

 perfect security. The same principle 

 applies to the nests of game, birds, and 

 all the more forcibly on account of their 

 being constantly placed on the ground. 

 If a sad mishap has befallen a clutch of 

 eggs, and some of the number have 

 come to grief, the misfortune can best 

 be remedied by such eggs as happen to 

 have escaped destruction being placed 

 under the charge of a domestic fowl. 

 When the little fellows emerge into the 

 world they soon learn to take care of 

 themselves, but the pupae of ants are 

 required for their successful rearing, 



Capt. Aymer Maxwell, another Eng- 

 lish authority on partridges, favors the 

 locating and protection of every part- 

 ridge nest on a preserve. 



We believe that where very little pro- 

 tection can be given to the nests that 

 they should not be located or visited, but 

 in places where keepers are employed 

 and where vermin can be controlled it 

 is desirable for the keepers to know 

 where the nests are and to see that no 



