THE GAME BREEDER 



177 



course, because of his industry. He 

 could sell it alive to a zoo if it happened 

 to be a lion or other animal suitable for 

 exhibition. He could sell it for breed- 

 ing purposes or for food provided the 

 animal be edible. 



Game abundance as food has 'been 

 brought about by an intelligent handling 

 of the subject by legislators in the older 

 countries. It is the law in England to- 

 day that any one who shoots a wild 

 migratory food bird during a long open 

 season owns the bird after he has shot 

 it, and if he shoots more than he can 

 eat he can sell his game in the markets. 

 If any one traps wild ducks or other 

 migratory fowl he can wring their necks 

 and send the birds to market. The re- 

 sult is the people who are said to own 

 the game have plenty of their property 

 to eat at prices, as Mr. Burnham ad- 

 mitted, cheaper than ordinary poultry. 

 His statement that 'the shooting in 

 England is only for the rich was en- 

 tirely erroneous since there are many 

 thousands of people in England, known 

 as wild fowlers (market gunners we call 

 them in the United States), who make a 

 living shooting and trapping migratory 

 wild fowl for the markets. 



Captain Aymer Maxwell, an authority 

 on shooting in England, after describing 

 the elaborate traps, or "decoys" as they 

 are called, used for trapping thousands 

 of wild ducks for the markets, says : 



"After all the ingenuity that has been ex- 

 pended on the making of duck decoys,* in- 

 tricate in design, costly to construct and 

 maintain, it is interesting to find that wild 

 duck may be caught by far easier means. 

 Hard by the fine duck decoy at Netherly, 



carefully planned with its seven pipes of 

 approved pattern, there stands an unpreten- 

 tious wire cage, which anyone could knock 

 together in an hour, using no more costly 

 material than a few bits of wood, a strip of 

 wire netting, hammer and nails. One side of 

 this simple pen lifts up and a cylinder of wire 

 netting, open at both ends and wide enough 

 to allow free passage to a duck, lies on the 

 ground, leading from the open side to the 

 center of the pen. For ten days or so the 

 ducks feed gloriously in the open pen work- 

 ing all around and through the cylinder ; then 

 the open side is let down, covering all but the 

 opening of this tube. With evening comes 

 the flight of ducks; they have been used to 

 passing through the innocent looking tube of 

 wire netting with impunity, and soon the pen 

 is full. When, however, they wish to depart, 

 to look for an exit in the center of the pen 

 never seems to occur to them, and they 

 wander disconsolately up and down the walls 

 of their prison, until with morning comes Mr. 

 Bell, duck keeper at Netherby and originator 

 of this ingenious device, to count his captives, 

 cut the wings of those who are to be given 

 their lives, and alas ! to wring the necks of 

 the rest, whose ignominious end is a prelude 

 to their appearance in the market." 



Captain Oates, in an excellent little 

 book on wild ducks, describes another 

 trap for wild ducks which is used in 

 England. This is a very simple wire 

 cage built partly in and partly out of 

 the water; the front is a sliding door. 

 When this is raised tame decoys are fed 

 in the cage, and when these come to be 

 fed the wild ducks follow them into the 

 inclosure. An attendant, in ambush 

 near by, pulls a string, releasing the front 

 of the cage ; this falls and all the wild 

 ducks within are caught. 



* The duck decoy is described in the book, 

 "Our Wild Fowl and Waders." 



NOTES FROM THE GAME FARMS AND PRESERVES. 



Shipping Eggs. 



There have been some complaints 

 about eggs not hatching after they were 

 shipped. This has resulted in some of 

 the dealers deciding not to deal in eggs. 

 Two have informed us they would not 

 ship any more eggs. 



One shipment to the Long Island 

 Game Breeders' Association turned out 



very badly. Other shipments to the 

 same place turned out very well. We all 

 know that eggs laid on the ground where 

 the birds are to be reared are the most 

 desirable, but many people decide to rear 

 more birds than they can from their own 

 eggs, and they must either purchase eggs 

 or one day old birds. We believe the 

 egg business will increase rapidly in 



