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THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



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considerable flock of ducks was seen near Couquille about the end of Jan- 

 uary, which caused the residents to complain that the ducks had a copy of 

 the new Federal law and came in only when they knew they were safe. 



A great danger menaces all the game in this region the present season. 

 Numerous construction gangs are making their camps along the line of the 

 new railroad from Mapleton to Marshfield, and from Glenada in to the 

 main line. In these camps it looked as if very active warden service would 

 be required to save any remnant of the game. 



Great numbers of cock pheasants are in evidence everywhere in the 

 Willamette Valley and a few were seen in the Grande Eonde. With the best 

 of care, however, residents say that they are not increasing there as they had 

 hoped they would. In the valleys of the Rogue and Umpqua, resident 

 sportsmen attribute the slow increase of pheasants to extensive cultivation 

 of orchards and vineyards, the nests being practically all broken up. This 

 is rapidly becoming a problem in the Willamette Valley. An acquaintance, 

 having an orchard of thirteen acres, said that he broke up several different 

 nests, although he tried his best to avoid disturbing them. We should work 

 out some system by which all such eggs could be saved. 



Fine flocks of bobwhite and native quail were seen on the Alderman 

 farm, near Dayton, and at other points in the Willamette Valley. Good 

 flocks of bobwhites were reported on the Conklin farm, near Ontario. They 

 were there during the winter and were being carefully protected (except 

 from cats) by the people of the neighborhood. I hunted over the farm but 

 could not find any, and was inclined to think that the cats had cleaned 

 them out. A new complication of the bobwhite problem was encountered 

 here. Alfalfa is the great staple and the farmers say that every nest is 

 flooded and eggs are destroyed by the incessant irrigation necessary for 

 this crop. The two coveys seen about there this winter were the result of 

 nests along the railroad embankment. 



BOLDNESS OF THE TIMBER WOLF AND COUGAR. 



Mr. S. T. Hodges, of Gold Hill, who has had many years' experience 

 hunting through the mountains of southern Oregon, reports the two following 

 incidents concerning the boldness of a wolf and a cougar in the presence of 

 a human being. They occurred during some of the early hunting trips of 

 Mr. Hodges: 



"One day I had killed a deer and carried it to camp, leaving the en- 

 trails and head lying in the woods where the deer had fallen. The next day 

 I happened to return near the same spot toward dusk. I heard animals 

 growling and quarreling and sneaked over near the spot to get a shot. Just 

 as I was approaching over a little rise, a wolf met me face to face about 

 thirty feet distant. The hair on his back bristled as he stood watching me. 



Pag-e seventeen 



