180 



THE GAME BREEDER 



the wheat field and I did not see her 

 again until they were about four weeks 

 old. I tried to take a picture of them, 

 • but she was too wild and the chickens 

 \v"Ould not come out of the grain. Now I 

 am unable to get within a quarter of a 

 mile of her before she hides. 1 am afraid 

 I will not be able to catch them. 1 was 

 in hopes she would come up near the 

 . building after the grain is cut. They 

 are now so large that they can fly two 

 miles and I am afraid to disturb them too 

 much for fear they will get lost. 



I now know how to raise prairie chick- 

 ens. Next year I am going to use turkey 

 hens that I know won't wander off. 



I intended to ship you some eggs but 

 could never find a nest that the hen had 

 not started to set on them. 



I would like very much to know how 

 I could catch this turkev hen and her 

 brood of prairie chickens. If I don't 

 get them I have at least solved the puzzle 

 "how to raise them." 



[Make a good sized turkey trap of fence 

 rails or chicken wire. Have an entrance 

 through a ditch under one side and across 

 this ditch on the inside of the pen place a 

 wide board or two for a bridge. Feed grain 

 to the birds for a day or two, leaving the pen 

 open on one side. Later close the side and 

 place grain in the ditch so the turkey and 

 brood can pass through the ditch under the 

 bridge on the inside. When caught they will 

 march around the sides of the pen and cross 

 the bridge instead of going under it. — Editor.] 



Game Birds and Poultry Wanted. 



Sometimes we receive a request that a 

 reader's wants be made known in a read- 

 ing notice. We are obliged to stamp 

 such notices as advertising matter when 

 a copy of the magazine is filed at the 

 post office and we of course charge for 

 them. The following request will no 

 doubt procure the pheasants and we have 

 no doubt some of our readers will fur- 

 nish the Hamburg and White Crested 

 pullets. 



I am in the market for : 

 6 male and 4 female Golden Pheasants 

 25 Hamburg pullets 

 25 white crested Polish pullets. 

 I. Tanenbaum, 

 170 Broadway, New York 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Important. 



New York, N. Y., Aug. 24, 1918. 

 Hon. E. W. Nelson, 



Chief, Biological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. 

 Dear Sir: — 



I have decided not to make any ap- 

 plication to the Survey for a permit to 

 possess, buy and sell migratory water- 

 fowl. I notice that your permit contains 

 a clause stating, "1 agree that if 

 said permit is issued I will comply with 

 all the provisions of the Migratory 

 Bird Treaty Act and regulations there- 

 under." The State laws, under which 

 our Association and many other 

 breeders have large numbers of wild 

 ducks which they have produced by in- 

 dustry, for shooting and incidentally to 

 supply the people with wild ducks to eat, 

 permit shooting. I notice that one of 

 your regulations which is in effect a crim- 

 inal law (although I do not believe the 

 Congress had any intention of making 

 such a crime) provides that wild fowl 

 may be killed in any manner except by 

 shooting. Since the birds we own and 

 the birds owned by many other breed- 

 ers were produced for shooting, I would 

 like to inquire if it is your intention to 

 arrest people who may continue to shoot 

 their birds provided they let the people . 

 have some to eat after supplying their 

 own needs. The inducement to produce 

 cheap game for the people to eat is shoot- 

 ing. Darwin has said as much, and all 

 sportsmen and naturalists are aware that 

 if the main inducement to do anything 

 be removed, there is a great likelihood 

 of the thing never being done. 



I am aware that your principal advisor 

 told the Congress that he did not want 

 any preserves or the sale of game which 

 went with them ; that he did not want 

 the American people to have the cheap 

 food which the people have in all civil- 

 ized countries. Having imparted this ad- 

 vice, the Congress enacted Section 12, 

 which I quote for your convenience from 

 the Migratory Law : 



Section 12. "Nothing in this act shall 

 be construed to prevent the breeding of 

 migratory game birds on farms and pre- 



