122 



THE GAME BREEDER 



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DUCK POND AT THE CALIFORNIA GAME FARM. 

 There are 32 Mallards; 20 Shovellers; 11 Pintails; 2 Cinnamon Teal; 2 Tree Ducks; 1 Widgeon; 



2 White-fronted Geese; 1 Snow Goose. 



NOTES FROM THE GAME FARMS AND PRESERVES. 



A fine new pond has been constructed 

 for wild fowl at the State Game Farm at 

 Hayward, and this now affords a home 

 for more than two hundred and fifty 

 ducks and geese. The following species 

 are represented: mallard, gadwall, bald- 

 pate, green-winged teal, cinnamon teal, 

 Bikal teal, shoveller, pin-tail, mandarin, 

 red-head, lesser scaup, ruddy, lesser 

 snow goose, white-fronted goose, ful- 

 vous tree-duck, and mud-hen. 



Two methods were used this past 

 spring and summer to stock the pond. 

 Eggs were collected in the Alvarado 

 marshes and hatched at the Game Farm, 

 and downy young and floppers were cap- 

 tured in the same locality and near Men- 

 dota in Fresno County. 



Another year experiments will be car- 

 ried on to determine the feasibility of 

 breeding wild ducks and geese in cap- 

 tivity. This past year a number of mal- 

 lards were reared and a setting of eggs 

 was obtained from a cinnamon teal which 

 had been kept in captivity for more than 

 a year. 



Only a few hundred ring-necked 

 pheasants were reared this year. These 

 are being planted in large lots in locali- 

 ties where pheasants have already made 

 a start. This should aid the birds to 

 increase in those localities where it has 



been demonstrated that favorable con- 

 ditions exist. 



Success has attended the efforts to rear 

 California valley quail. Over three hun- 

 dred birds hatched in incubators and 

 reared in brooders are now nearing ma- 

 turity. A few small plants will be made. 

 The experiments have clearly demon- 

 strated that the valley quail is not a dif- 

 ficult bird to rear in captivity. 



Maggots. 



In a good booklet on Pheasant Farm- 

 ing by Gene M. Simpson, Superintendent 

 of the Oregon State Game Farm, the 

 writer advises the use of the larvae of 

 the common blue fly (maggots). "When 

 this food is used," he says, "nothing else 

 need be fed, except greens occasionally, 

 until the birds are a month old." 



Mr. Simpson was a successful com- 

 mercial breeder of pheasants before he 

 became the Superintendent of the State 

 Game Farm, and has reared many pheas- 

 ants. 



We were of the opinion, however, that 

 the use of maggots had been almost, if 

 not entirely abandoned by most of the 

 successful gamp keepers. Where grass- 

 hoppers and other insects are plentiful 

 as they should be in the rearing field, 

 the pursuit of insects is excellent exer- 



