THE GAME BREEDER 



47 



many small clubs as well as in the bigger 

 places where the game is always so plen- 

 tiful that much of it should be sold. 



Hand-rearing. 



One of the best articles in the bulletin 

 is a description of hand- rearing by Mal- 

 com Dunn ; but both Malcom and his 

 talented father, Duncan Dunn, will agree 

 with us, no doubt, that the gray part- 

 ridges abroad are best handled when 

 breeding wild in vermin-proof fields and 

 that our partridges or quail on proper 

 ground can be best handled in this 

 manner. 



Mr. D. H. Selden, who has been breed- 

 ing quail for twelve years, says he per- 

 mits his hand-reared quail to run with 

 their foster mother in a large enclosure 

 and well adds, "the larger the range of 

 captive birds the better, and plenty of 

 cover should be provided — in other 

 words imitate Mother Nature as much 

 as possible." 



Quail Breeding. 



Mr. E. A. Quarles has an article about 

 breeding quail in small numbers and says 

 "every sportsman cherishes the fond 

 hope that some day we shall be able to 

 produce quail by the thousands at com- 

 paratively small expense, as the ring- 

 neck pheasant is turned out to-day, and 

 turn them out to stock millions of acres 

 of untenanted covers." We have never 

 found pheasant breeding inexpensive. 

 He refers to the fact that the covers have 

 been destroyed on many farms and says 

 even when given good cover bobwhite 

 must have adequate protection and be 

 shot with due consideration to the spar- 

 ing of a stock sufficient to furnish breed- 

 ers for another year. The hope is ex- 

 pressed that it may be possible in time 

 to turn game birds loose with good ex- 

 pectation that sufficient will survive from 

 year to year to furnish some sport to 

 the man who cannot afford a club or 

 private preserve. The idea is that when 

 quiet refuges (more posted farms) are 

 established some birds may come out and 

 be shot if the foxes and other vermin do 

 not get them. As we have pointed out 

 they should not be shot since these are 

 vermin's stock birds left to produce food 

 for another season. 



Song Birds. 



The bulletin has a well illustrated de- 

 partment for song and insectivorous 

 birds and evidently intends to aid the 

 good work of the National and State 

 Audubon Associations. The Game Con- 

 servation Society leaves the protection 

 of song and insectivorous birds to these 

 associations and has started a depart- 

 ment for "setters, pointers, hounds and 

 other sporting dogs." 



Game Law Activities. 



Much space is devoted to those who 

 are interested in securing more game 

 laws — Mr. J. R. Hickman, of the Mis- 

 souri league, for example, reports that 

 the league was organized for State-wide 

 work. "We had," he says, "to get into 

 the legislative fight for good game laws 

 the week after our organization. So you 

 see we were born a-fighting and it looks 

 as if we must keep it up if we want to 

 get anything worth while." 



Our readers can only hope that the 

 people who wish to have "more game" 

 can be excepted from the restrictions and 

 that a little amendment permitting game 

 breeding soon can be enacted in Mis- 

 souri ; that it will become permanent and 

 popular as such amendments are in other 

 States where game breeders are not re- 

 quired to get into the annual "fighting" 

 over game laws. 



When is a Wild Duck? 



The above question is asked in a 

 Washington dispatch to the Sun, N. Y., 

 September 9. 



Professor T. Gilbert Pearson, in an 

 interview said: "When you go to a 

 hotel and look down the bill of fare 

 where it says $6 and then order 'wild 

 duck,' how are you going to know it is 

 wild?" 



Professor Pearson says you can't tell. 

 He has got the gourmands guessing by 

 his declaration that half the "canvasback 

 ducks" for which you pay from $3 to $6 

 are merely "typographical errors" on 

 the bill of fare. He has confided to 

 some of the bird sharks that most of 

 the wild ducks on the hotel menus were 

 raised in a yard and a pond with a wire 

 fence around them. He positively de- 



