THE GAME BREEDER 



85 



fact that the stomach of one dove con- 

 tained 9,200 seeds of different weeds, 

 while the stomachs of two other doves 

 contained 6,400 and 7,500 respectively. 

 If three doves at one meal can destroy 

 23,100 weed seeds and thus prevent the 

 spread of that many noxious weeds, how 

 much good could be accomplished by the 

 doves on one farm, in one county or 

 throughout the State ? 



"In the United States alone the annual 

 loss from weeds has been estimated at 

 $400,000,000. In the face of these start- 

 ling figures we can well realize the im- 

 portance of protecting the useful seed- 

 eating birds, one of nature's best means 

 of checking just such losses." — The Ore- 

 gon Sportsman. 



[The criterion of a game bird is that it be 

 good to eat and a desirable object of pursuit. 



The dove is a swift flying difficult mark and 

 it certainly is very good to eat. Audubon 

 preferred it, we believe, to the quail. The 

 doves undoubtedly will become tremend- 

 ously abundant now that game farming and 

 preserving is legal in America just as the 

 wood-pigeons have become so abundant in 

 England as to be regarded as a nuisance and! 

 pest in many neighborhoods. Game keepers, 

 and others are permitted to shoot them,, but 

 they are not highly prized as game birds be- 

 cause there are so many other birds which are- 

 better both in the field and on the table. The 

 doves soon became very abundant on the: 

 preserve of the Game Breeders' Association- 

 on Long Island. This was due to the quiet: 

 and protection given to other game. The dove 

 shooting was said to be very good in the- 

 neighborhood by those who were unaware that 

 it was illegal to shoot doves. They were not 

 shot on the preserve but many might have 

 been shot and eaten with no danger of the 

 d ves becoming exterminated. We predict 

 there soon will be more doves in America than 

 the people will care to eat. — Editor.] 



GAME ENEMIES. 



The Crow. 



We invite the attention of the crow 

 specialists of the U. S. Biological Sur- 

 vey to the statement of Miss Mary C. 

 Wilkie, in her article on Wild Turkey 

 Breeding. "It has always been a ques- 

 tion," she says, "whether the crows or I 

 should find the nest first." Since Miss 

 Wilkie declined an offer of $1. each for 

 several hundred eggs which we sent her 

 last season, thinking it more profitable 

 to hatch them and sell her turkeys, the 

 question she refers to evidently is a seri- 

 ous one. 



Laws protecting "beneficial" crows, 

 hawks and other vermin should provide 

 that game breeders are excepted. Other- 

 wise there will be a strong temptation 

 to control the nest robbers and the de- 

 stroyers of game birds, "law or no law," 

 as they say on some game farms. 



Mr. Edw. A. Mcllhenny, in his book 

 on The Wild Turkey, refers to the crow 

 as an "ubiquitous thief and villain." 



Game and Foxes. 



Owen Jones, in his Gamekeepers Note- 

 book, says: The keeper finds his game 

 nests with his eyes, the fox with his 

 nose. The keeper who must preserve 



game and preserves foxes takes steps to 

 overcome the scent of his birds. He 

 sprinkles the neighborhood of all the 

 nests he can find with some strong- 

 smelling fluid. But the foulest or strong- 

 est scent will not save a bird when a fox 

 has once seen her. Fortunately he is not 

 clever enough to know a new trap from 

 an old one, nor a sound from a broken 

 one, and the keeper finds at nesting time 

 a good use for his disused traps, placing 

 them about birds sitting in dangerous 

 spots. Any thing in the shape of scrap 

 iron the fox suspects; anything unusual 

 about a nest, such as a piece of news- 

 paper on a bush nearby, will arouse his 

 fears, and possibly save a bird's life. But 

 as rooks learn to treat scarcecrows with 

 contempt, so foxes learn to have no fear 

 for harmless terrors, and the keeper 

 rings the changes on all the fox-alarming 

 devices which experience and ingenuity 

 can suggest. 



Owls. 

 Mr. Fred P. Oaks, 



Supply Dept, Game Breder. 



Your inquiry for the best trap and 

 method of catching owls has been re- 

 ferred to me to answer. 



I suppose it is the large hoot owl that 



