THE GAME BREEDER 



23 



of the deaths are caused by over-eating. 

 Very few die of other causes. They never 

 seem to get too many insects and rarely 

 starve if fed nothing else. Much de- 

 pends on the place where the birds are 

 kept, and a reasonable amount of. com- 

 mon sense is required naturally. I wish to 

 make it most emphatic that over-feeding 

 causes most of the troubles and lack of 

 cleanliness the balance. 



"As you know, grouse leave the nest 

 immediately on hatching, and are ever 

 afterwards in a clean place. We must, 

 to be successful, keep their surroundings 

 absolutely clean or as near that as pos- 

 sible. 



"I should not advise keeping of water 

 continually in front of the young grouse, 

 but would put it in fresh every after- 

 noon about four o'clock, taking it out 

 • at eight o'clock in the morning." — Bul- 

 letin American Protective Association. 



the Owego Creek between here and New- 

 ark Valley and they are working havoc 

 with the trout, and I "fear that all the 

 fine stocking we did last fall will go for 

 naught if something is not done to rid 

 the creek of them. 



Every open space of water and every 

 spring hole all along the creek contains 

 from six to ten of these fish eaters. What 

 are they protected for anyway? 



Is it a possible thing for the commis- 

 sion to grant a permit to a few of us 

 sportsmen allowing us to clean up 

 a few of them. A couple of days shoot- 

 ing at them even would drive them away. 

 Will you take it up with the commission 

 at once and let me know. I will per- 

 sonally guarantee that only sheldrakes 

 will be shot at for the reason that there 

 •is no other kind of duck on the creek." 



QUAIL AND -PHEASANTS. 



In an old letter, written in 1908, Mr. 

 T. S. Ketcham, who was a game keeper 

 at the Rassapreague Club, on Long Is- 

 land, N, Y., says : "The pheasants that 

 have come under my observation do not 

 cause quail or grouse to leave the woods. 

 I have known a flock of 30 or more, 

 pheasants to stay in a small piece of 

 cedars with a flock of 20 odd quail and 

 stayed the entire season in the same 

 place and apparently never molested each 

 other. 



I have flushed 15 or 20 pheasants out 

 of a small piece of buckwheat and a 

 flock of fine quail right in the midst of 

 them. 



Still we know the pheasant is a great 

 fighter but I believe it to be wrong in- 

 formation to think they drive quail out 

 of the woods — my experience teaches 



me different. 



*■ 



SHELDRAKES AND TROUT. 



Fredk. J. Davis, of Owego, N. Y., 

 wrote to Llewellyn Legge, Chief Game 

 Protector, asking permission to shoot 

 sheldrakes. His letter is as follows: 



"There are at least 300 sheldrakes on 



AN EGG HATCHING RACE. 



M. Brechemin, a French scientific 

 poultry raiser, has just published the re- 

 port of a chicken-raising contest in which 

 he pitted three turkeys and three ordi- 

 nary hens against an incubator. The 

 race lasted three months. The prelimi- 

 nary heat was won by the incubator, and 

 in the final the artificial mother simply 

 walked away from its natural competi- 

 tors. The score was as follows : 



Eggs Chickens 

 Brooded. Hatched. 



Hens 242 158 



Incubator 243 209 



Alive and well after three months:. 



Hens 75 



Incubator • • 194 



In other words, 79 per cent, of the 

 eggs confided to the incubator turned out 

 chickens, while only 31 per cent, of those 

 intrusted to the turkeys and hens bore 

 fruit. 



+■ — 



The Shooting Times and British 

 Sportsman says : Winged game was not 

 considered harmful at the time of the 

 passage of the Ground Game act in Eng- 

 land, — (which permits the grower of 

 crops to destroy rabbits and hares in the 

 interest of his crops) but now it has been 

 discovered that winged game is harmful 

 and the farmer is still further protect ed 

 by recent legislation. 



