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THE GAME BREEDER 



T!?5 Game Breeder 



Published Monthly 



Edited by DWIGHT W. HUNTINGTON 



NEW YORK, MARCH, 1917. 



TERMS: 



10 Cents a Copy — $1.00 a year in Advance. 



Postage free to all subscribers in tiie United States. 

 To All Foreign Countries and Canada, $1.25. 



The Game Conservation Society, Inc. 

 publishers, 150 nassau st., new york 



D. W. Huntington, President, 



F. R. Peixotto, Treasurer, 



J. C. Hcntington, Secretary. 

 Telephone, Beekman 3685. 



The owner of the ducks printed in our 

 January cover and reprinted in this issue, 

 without doubt, is honest and sincere in 

 his opinion that his ducks are true wild 

 mallards, or at least descended from 

 birds trapped and owned by him. He 

 has written us that the stock birds were 

 trapped and that the birds shown in the 

 picture were reared on his farm from 

 the wild trapped birds. The common 

 barnyard turkey, however, does not 

 often resemble the fresh-trapped wild 

 turkeys, and it is important to bear in 

 mind that the domestication of any spe- 

 cies often results in a change of appear- 

 ance and, unfortunately, in a loss of 

 sporting qualities. 



The owner of the ducks in a letter to 

 The Game Breeder says: "The picture 

 is not a very good picture for sportsmen 

 to judge from. I will state positively, 

 and I am willing to stand back of it, that 

 my ducks are the genuine wild mallards 

 and can fly nicely when their wings are 

 not clipped. I would be willing to show 

 them to any wild game judge in the 

 world." 



that the game politicians and organized 

 sportsmen seem to be entirely unaware 

 of the rapid growth of the game breed- 

 ers' industry in the States which have 

 enacted sensible laws permitting and en- 

 couraging the production of game and 



game fish. 



— > 



WILD BREEDING THE BEST. 



We would strongly urge the Oketee 

 Club and the other quail and grouse 

 clubs to breed their quail and grouse 

 wild in protected fields. It is an easy 

 matter to thus produce all the birds the 

 land will carry — one or more covies in 

 every field. A head keeper who under- 

 stands the game foods and covers and 

 who can control the enemies of the game 

 with one or more assistants who know 

 how to shoot and trap is all that is neces- 

 sary. 



Hand rearing of quail and grouse may 

 be attempted as a side line to save a few 

 eggs which have been taken from unsafe 

 nests, but the artificial work is not neces- 

 sary or even desirable excepting on big 

 places where an extra and an expensive 

 and skilled man can be employed for this 

 work alone. 



The grouse and the partridges in for- 

 eign countries are not hand-reared ex- 

 cepting on a very few places. Some of 

 the best American "shoots" have plenty 

 of birds, all bred wild in the fields. 



Much depends on the ability of the 

 keeper employed. 



MAINE NOVELTIES. 



We would strongly urge our readers 

 to read and ponder well the "Maine 

 Novelties," samples of which are pub- 

 lished in the Survey of the Field this 

 month. The "outfit" would be positively 

 humorous were it not for the sad fact 



HOW WILD STOCK DETERIO- 

 RATES. 



There is a great^and continuing inter- 

 est in the picture of the ducks to which 

 we invited the attention of our readers 

 (in January). Their opinions (some of 

 which are printed in this issue) are the 

 opinions of capable breeders and with 

 one exception every one who has passed 

 on the ducks says they are not wild, 

 pure and true to type. Before asking 

 our readers, "How about the ducks ?" we 

 had written a friendly note to their own- 

 er, in which we told him they looked 

 somewhat heavy and did not seem to us 

 to have the pattern and markings of the 

 true wild mallards. 



