176 



THE GAME BREEDER 



each in the aviary. I always provided 

 them with baskets to lay in, which they 

 only sometimes made use of ; they take 

 twenty-four days to hatch. The young 

 cocks do* not attain their full plumage 

 until after the moult of the second sum- 

 mer; they drop their chicken feathers 

 when about three months old; their 

 plumage is then something like the hen's-, 

 but sufficiently bright in some parts as 

 easily to distinguish them from the young 

 females. In general there are more 

 cocks than hens. 



If the cock birds are placed in a por- 

 tion of the aviary apart from the hens, 

 any number may be kept together. I 

 have had as many as twelve males in full 

 plumage together, and when during the 



summer (and indeed at all times,) these, 

 beautiful birds were going through the 

 very curious and fanciful attitudes and 

 manoeuvres peculiar to them, it was one 

 of the most brilliant sights to be ob- 

 served in nature. The flashing of their 

 various golden, crimson, blue, and purple 

 plumes in different lights was absolutely 

 dazzling to the eye, and at these times 

 they contrive to display all the most 

 beautiful parts of their plumage to the 

 utmost advantage ; the golden crest is 

 raised, the splendid orange and purple 

 tipped collar is spread out to its full ex- 

 tent, while the scarlet tail coverts are 

 shown in all their beauty. During the 

 whole time the birds are leaping and 

 dancing around each other, and uttering 

 occasionally their peculiar shrill cry. 



COURT MADE LAW AND HOW TO TRAP WILD DUCKS. 



'-tdt !• 



■ Some reflections of the editor on this s 



''abundance in general; the foreign freedom i 



: for the markets by. gunners by no means ri 



p-ublic waters which are especially important 



tp, trap all species of migratory fowl for sto 



the Congress was told that we don't want i 



new law-makers or regulation-makers think 



"and the sale of game as food" which goes 



be popular. 



Mr. Burnham's statement to the 

 United States Congressional committee 

 that the American game law was made 

 by the courts must have seemed amusing 

 and peculiar to the lawmakers who 

 know, of course, that the courts have 

 no authority to make laws and have re- . 

 peatedly said so. 



We quoted in our July issue Mr. 

 Burnham's remarks as officially reported 

 and printed in the record of the hearing. 

 He said : 



"Our law has been made, of course, con- 

 siderably since that time (the time of the 

 American Revolution) by the courts. Ac- 

 cording to the American law — court made — 

 the game is the property of the state, held 



in trust for all of the people We 



do not want to adopt the European p'reserve 

 system ; we do no't want to adopt the sale of 

 game which goes with it." 



The courts, as we understand the mat- 

 ter, have no power to make laws. Re- 

 peatedly they have said, when called 



pecies of law and on game laws and game 

 n the matter of shooting migratory wild ducks 

 ch, and the methods of trapping the birds on 

 and timely now that it has just become legal 

 eking the game farms and preserves, which 

 n America. Fortunately the Congress and the 

 we do want some game farms and preserve; 

 with them. Food production just now shoulc 



upon to pass upon laws which seemed to 

 create hardships and wrongs, that they 

 must decide the matters in controversy 

 according to the laws made by the law- 

 makers. The remedy must be sought by 

 amendments to the laws (which only 

 could be made by the legislature) and 

 not by appeals to the courts to change 

 or amend the laws. 



Courts can only interpret ; they cannot 

 make or even amend the laws. It is true 

 that the courts have decided that at the 

 common or unwritten law, wild creatures 

 are owned by the people in common be- 

 cause they have no other owner. This 

 idea is of great antiquity and may be 

 found in the old Roman law. Under 

 this ancient law, however, any one who 

 by his industry captured alive or killed 

 a wild animal at once became the owner 

 of it and could do with it as he pleased. 

 Any one who produced one owned it, of 





