The Oregon Sportsman 



Volume II DECEMBER, 1914 Number 12 



IMPORTATION OF NEW SPECIES. 



We often hear the suggestion that our fields and woods 

 should be stocked with other species of birds and animals that 

 are not found here, and that our streams should be stocked with 

 species of fish from other states. Sometimes an easterner who 

 has fished for pickerel or bass in his youthful days has remem- 

 brances and associations that lead him to believe that angling for 

 these fish can hardly be equaled by catching a rainbow or 

 chinook. There can be no comparison in the fish, however. 



Inasmuch as our streams are capable of furnishing food for 

 a certain number of fish and since it takes no more effort to keep 

 a stream stocked with first-class fish than with a poorer grade, 

 we should see to it that only the best are propagated and pro- 

 tected. 



As a general rule, we are emphatically opposed to the intro- 

 duction of species other than the native birds, animals and fish 

 in our state. Experiments of this kind have often been unsuc- 

 cessful or have proved disastrous. The introduction of the 

 English sparrow into America, of the rabbit into Australia and 

 the mongoose into Jamaica are notable examples where species 

 have been successfully acclimatized. In the change of environ- 

 ment, habits of creatures also change. In the above cases, these 

 creatures have become so abundant as to be pests and are dis- 

 astrous to native species. 



On the other hand, there have been some very successful 

 experiments in Oregon as far as game birds are concerned. The 

 Chinese, ring-necked or Denny pheasant became so readily ac- 

 elimatized and the birds increased in numbers so rapidly that it 

 is the most successful example in America today of an introduced 

 game bird. 



The Decrease of Grouse and Quail. 

 We have sometimes heard the complaint that the Chinese 

 pheasant interferes with and drives out native birds. As far as 



Pag-e one 



