GAME BIRDS SUITABLE FOR NATURALIZING 5 



game bird — the bob white (Colinus virginianus) — has responded at 

 all encouragingly to efforts to increase its numbers. If upland shoot- 

 ing is to be preserved in the face of an increasing number of hunters, 

 birds must be utilized that can easily be distributed and increased; 

 in other words, birds that can be handled and depended upon as a 

 crop. Shall the efforts stop with present successes, or shall the 

 activities of the agricultural explorers be emulated in ransacking the 

 earth for forms that can be used to increase production? Success 

 of the method in agriculture, and already in game-bird propagation 

 itself, indicates further introductions as the most promising means 

 of really increasing game-bird production. 



Figure 2. — American range of ring-necked pheasants, 1929. Solid black indicates 

 localities where established ; crosshatching, areas where systematic distribution 

 has been carried on, the exact results not reported 



SOURCES OF ADDITIONAL IMPORTATIONS 



The common domesticated animals and plants and the game birds 

 that have already been successfully naturalized have been derived 

 chiefly from the Temperate Zone of Europe and Asia. Agricultural 

 explorers of the Office of Foreign Plant Introduction of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry also have resorted most frequently to that region. 

 Japan, China, Mongolia, and southern Siberia seem to be the most 

 likely sources of novelties that will thrive under conditions prevalent 

 over large areas in the United States. Suitable local surroundings 

 also can easily be found for desirable game birds that live in almost 

 any part of Europe. Along the Gulf of Mexico are small areas that 

 may be inhabited by game birds of the subtropics of other countries, 

 but, in general, stock for introduction must come chiefly from tern- 



