THE GAME BREEDER 



21 



The scheme has the indorsement of the 

 National Association of Audubon Socie- 

 ties and is receiving serious attention 

 from the United States naval authorities. 



Aviators Study Birds. 



Washington, D. C, March 9. — Despite 

 the strenuous and engrossing character 

 of their occupation, a few aviators have 

 found opportunity to note the height of 

 flight of various migrating birds. 



Thus from French soldiers of the air 

 it is learned that swallows have been ob- 

 served to maintain an average altitude of 

 700 yards and wild ducks one of 1,800 

 yards, while green plover have been seen 

 at a height of 2,150 yards. 



Incidentally it may be mentioned that 

 the ducks were moving at a speed of 65^2 

 miles an hour when flying upward and 

 69 miles an hour when flying horizontally. 



From another aviator it is learned that 

 when he was flying at 9,500 feet he saw 

 swallows high above him. 



And another, whose observations were 

 made at a height of 6,000 feet during a 

 heavy bombardment "with anti-aircraft 

 shells bursting in all directions," states 

 that he observed 200 golden plover, per- 

 haps driven higher than usual by the fact 

 that the vicinity was "an unpleasant belt 

 to cross." — Maine Woods. 



More Sentiment. 



We offer the suggestion that there be 

 founded the "Order of the Double- 

 Cross," membership therein to be restrict- 

 ed to '"birds" of the genus "clay pigeon," 

 for it is "theirs not to reason why ; theirs 

 but to do and die." 



Now this doin' and diein', while pri- 

 marily for the pleasure of some half-mil- 

 lion trapshooters, incidentally, lets gun- 

 ners get a perfect natural desire to shoot 

 out of their systems without making the 

 feathered creatures of wood and field vic- 

 tims of the skill of the shooters. 



Aside from sentimental considerations, 

 the protection of bird life is an economic 

 question of greater importance than is 

 generally realized. 



Unfortunately foir the country and 

 equally so for the clay pigeon, it is not 

 an insectivorous "bird" nor is it a song- 



ster, at least not so you would notice it. 

 But, as we have intimated the "birdie" 

 faces fusillades of shotgun fire with utter 

 abandon ; a willing sacrifice to man's de- 

 sire to demonstrate his prowess as a 

 marksman. 



In flocks of millions, the "clay bird" 

 challenges the shooter to pit his skill 

 against the speed of the target and its 

 predilection to be where the shot is not 

 and leaves the gunman the poor consola- 

 tion- of having punched a hole in the at- 

 mosphere at a cost of several cents per 

 punch. 



True, many trapshooters continue, in 

 season, to follow the legitimate and royal 

 sport of hunting, but a sportsman of the 

 type that will shoot fifty to one hundred 

 shells every Saturday throughout the 

 year, just for the joy of shooting, is not 

 the withered-souled and greedy-eyed in- 

 dividual who would "hog" all the game 

 of a county during both "open" and 

 "closed" seasons. And, too, the trap- 

 shooter, believing in sport for sport's 

 sake, would sic a game warden on the 

 aforesaid g. i. and w. s. individual the 

 minute he was caught with the goods. 



Other hunters have forsaken field 

 shooting for "the patriotic sport," finding 

 in the inanimate-target game a satisfying 

 substitute, without combats with bramble 

 bushes, wading of swamps or marshes 

 and a spell of "rheumatiz" that lasts from 

 the end of one hunting season til just be- 

 fore the opening of the next. — Maine 

 Woods. 



1 We are by no means opposed to trap shoot- 

 ing, all of our game breeding associations and 

 shoots have traps for a diversion and for 

 practice during the summer. We hope our 

 game also can be saved from extinction and 

 the great naturalist, Darwin, tells us the best 

 way to keep game abundant is to encourage 

 shooting as a means to induce production. — 

 Editor.] 



Breeding Marketable Game. 



Lovers of wild life and devotees of 

 the chase are now at odds over the ques- 

 tion of Federal game laws. Violent pro- 

 test has been made against the winter 

 slaughter of migratory birds in Louisiana, 

 and the hunters of the South have been 

 asked how they would regard the collect- 



(Continued on page 25.) 



