THE GAME BREEDER 



167 



may, in its discretion, require a bond from 

 such person, in such sum as the commission 

 may determine, conditioned that he will not 

 avail himself of the privileges of said license 

 for purposes not herein set forth. 



"The commission may issue permits to 

 enable persons to ship fish, game birds, 

 quadrupeds or aquatic animals lawfully taken 

 and possessed for propagation, scientific or 

 educational purposes, under such regulations 

 as the commission may prescribe. 



"Fish, game birds, quadrupeds or aquatic 

 animals lawfully possessed under this section 

 may be sold at any time, by any person re- 

 ceiving a license under this section, for 

 propagation, scientific, educational or exhibi- 

 tion purposes only. 



"Persons receiving a license under this 

 section must report the result of operation 

 thereunder annually to the commission, at the 

 expiration of the license.' Such license shall 

 be in force for one year only from the date 

 of issue and shall not be transferable." 



Often the Game Breeder has pointed 

 out the absurdity of issuing licenses for 

 $1 permitting every one to destroy 25 

 or 50 game birds in a day while people 

 must be arrested and fined $15,000, or 

 some other sum, if they should happen 

 to take a few game birds alive with the 

 intention of breeding large numbers of 

 them for sale as food. 



It is interesting to note that for $1 

 (same price as killing license) birds may 

 be taken alive and preserved. 



More Law for California. 



The farmers of Lower California are 

 complaining because the rabbits eat their 

 beans. An open season is desired to 

 remedy the situation. 



The Field says : 



Early last Fall it was the ducks that were 

 doing untold damage to their rice crop and 

 they asked an open season on them, and now 

 it is the rabbit. All these complaints are re- 

 ferred to the Food Administration as the Fish 

 •and Game Commission has no power to act, 

 .and by the time any relief is afforded the 

 rabbits will have gotten through with the 

 beans and turned their attention to something 

 else, perhaps the truck gardens. At the next 

 meeting of the state legislature is the time 

 i and place for the rice-growers and .the bean- 

 growers to make their complaints and get 

 relief— if any relief is really needed. A 

 legislature usually has time to look into such 

 matters thoroughly and determine to what 

 degree the complaints made are justified. 



When we learned that farmers in New 

 Mexico complained about the Gambel's 



quail eating their beans we decided to 

 plant beans for our Gambel's. With us 

 the quail are worth more than beans. 

 Why should not a landowner decide 

 which crop he wants? We believe with 

 a little good farm management he can 

 have plenty of beans and plenty of quail 

 on the same ground. We shall be pre- 

 pared (provided the game police don't 

 interfere) to serve beans to any Bos- 

 tonian who may visit us and broiled 

 quail from the same garden for any 

 Missourian who for educational pur- 

 poses would like to look in at a dinner 

 with both items on the bill. If we must 

 give up one it will be the beans. We 

 hope if the laws must be so shaped as 

 to require our-giving up one of our indus- 

 tries it certainly will be the beans. We 

 can buy beans cheaper than we are buy- 

 ing quail. 



One More New York Law. 



The conservation law recently was 

 amended so as to read as follows : 



Wild fowl. Except in counties wholly or 

 partly within the forest preserve or on Long 

 Island, wild fowl may only be taken with the 

 use of a shotgun fired at arm's length. 



This act shall take effect immediately. 



We presume this does not mean that 

 only pistols shall be used, as a reader 

 suggests. Probably guns held at the 

 shoulder are meant. It would be inter- 

 esting to know if this law conflicts with 

 the law permitting the taking of birds 

 for propagation purposes. Birds taken 

 with a shotgun fired at. arm's length 

 would hardly be useful for food produc- 

 ing purposes. 



Something Significant. 



It is significant that the pheasants and 

 certain species of wild ducks and deer 

 have responded nicely to breeders' laws 

 permitting their production and sale in 

 the markets and that complaints are com- 

 mon that the birds protected against 

 breeders are found to need closed sea- 

 sons and must be placed on the song bird 

 list. ■ 



More Game and Fewer Game Laws. 



