447 
I October, 1922 
A great quantity of food, even though it be of desir- 
able variety is not in itself satisfactory. It is rather 
a question of how this food is distributed and whether 
it is available the year round. 
Quail, for example, dislike to feed far away from the 
edge of a grain field, and if the grain fields are far 
from hedges, thickets or fences grown to bush and 
weeds, quail will shun the bare open field unless they 
are very hungry. They prefer to feed close to cover, or 
I for that matter on the ground that has cover. 
I No matter how well the feeding grounds may be 
I distributed, or how much suitable cover there is they 
' avail little in the end unless the feeding grounds are 
! such that they will furnish food the year round. 
I With these fundamental principles in mind it is a 
^ comparatively simple matter to create a game preserve 
that will furnish homes for birds that will satisfy their 
instinctive longings and permit them to multiply and 
thrive. 
Feeding birds in severe weather when they have little 
I inclination to forage for themselves is all well and good, 
; but for the most part of the time birds are not content 
I unless they can wander and get their food according 
to their natural desires. Domestic fowl like chickens 
have the same instinctive desire to hunt for their living. 
If an acre of oats is sown on one side of a chicken house 
the chickens will spend their time searching out the 
; seeds, even though a great abundance of oats are strewn 
' thickly on the other side of the chicken house. 
Bear in mind, therefore, that coveys of quail would 
rather forage and work for their daily meals than to 
I fill themselves from convenient piles of grain. 
To satisfy the natural desire to search for food, grain 
should be planted in a game preserve close to the small 
I thickets, preferably on the south side, and be allowed 
i to ripen and remain uncut. If a patch, say an eighth 
of an acre, is sown to' buckwheat and millet, with a 
j sprinkling of Kaffir corn, sorghum or broom sedge, 
an ideal feeding ground is made at small cost. The 
birds will enjoy running through the thick growth, 
, picking up the small grain, or taking it from the stalk 
! before it drops to the ground. The millet and buck- 
I wheat will furnish an abundance of food during the 
I summer and fall months. When snow time arrives the 
tops of the grain like Kaffir corn, sorghum or brown 
sedge may be broken so that their grain heads will hang 
down well above the snow. These will cast off some 
gram which may be picked up from the snow, or the 
birds may jump up and reach the heads; so that even 
when there is a crust on rather deep snow, the birds, 
I by a little exertion, will be able to survive a bad spell 
of weather. Supplementing this with a sprinkling of 
j grain within the thickets themselves, the birds will have 
I little difficulty in wintering in a cold climate, when 
j the snowfall is heavy. 
When birds like our quail are well fed, they are able 
to stand a long siege of severe weather. It is the hungary 
covey that is usually found frozen to death in a huddle. 
Some of the feed that is thrown out for the birds in 
severe weather should be put in brush piles, prepared 
for. that purpose, and the further use of shelters. A 
good mixture is made up of wheat, cracked corn, buck- 
wheat, with some barley and oats, to which is added 
about ten per cent, of commercial meat scraps. Beside 
brush heaps, other shelters should be provided that are 
snow proof. In these there should always be a good 
supply of gravel. 
There are to be had in New England thousand acre 
tracts of land suited in every way for successful game 
preserves. In a state of nature game will not be abun- 
dant on these tracts, but with the aid of such artificial 
means as are necessary, birds in large quantities may 
be helped to thrive. 
Such tracts of land, made up of from six to a dozen 
farms, with suitable buildings, can be bought for less 
than twenty thousand dollars. One man with a place 
to live in and a small patch of ground to till can manage 
such a preserve the year round, planting all the neces- 
sary patches of bird food, feeding the birds in severe 
weather, providing them with proper shelter, and doing 
some patrol work. 
The farms on such a tract could be rented so that the 
preserves would bring in a revenue from such source to 
pay overhead expense and upkeep. Besides each of 
the tenants would do something in the way of keeping 
off tresspassers. 
The tract of land purchased as herein indicated would 
always be an asset that would yield some return on 
the capital invested, while the game preserve as such 
would be a valuable by-product. 
GAME EAST AND WEST 
I T has often been pointed out that the abolition of 
spring shooting has very considerably extended the 
breeding range of some wildfowl all over the coun- 
try; and this extension will increase. In the western 
country beyond the Missouri River, ducks are breed- 
ing freely in all suitable places. In many parts of New 
England — especially Massachusetts and Connecticut — 
black ducks have raised broods in unusual numbers. 
As far south as Chincoteague Bay, Maryland, Mr. A. 
H. Howell found black ducks breeding on an island in 
the bay, and picked up a half-grown young bird in the 
marsh. 
Dr. H. C. Oberholzer recently announced that sev- 
eral thousand wild ducks — mostly mallards — remained 
near Polksville, in Southeastern Iowa, because they 
were regularly fed with corn. Dr. Oberholzer said 
they became quite tame. 
The Secretary of Agriculture has issued an order au- 
thorizing the killing of band-tail pigeons in Oregon 
between June 1st and July 15th. This is in accordance 
with the regulation which permits the destruction of 
migratory birds in cases where they have been proved 
to be injurious. In Oregon the band-tail pigeon has 
been shown to feed on cherries and other small fruits 
to such an extent as seriously to interfere with the 
business of the fruit-grower, but the person owning or 
leasing the land must first secure an individual permit, 
countersigned by the chief officer in charge of the en- 
forcement of the fish and game laws of Oregon. 
The depreciations on the antelope by coyotes on the 
Bison Range in Montana, and by bobcats on the Wind 
Cave Game Preserve, have, as was pointed out some 
time ago, been very serious. The antelope herd at 
the Bison Range was reduced from sixty individuals 
to seventeen, and that at the Mbnd Cave Preserve 
from thirty-four to fourteen. 
These are enormous losses ; but on the other hand 
both these small herds, having become acclimated and 
thoroughly at home on these preserves, may re-estab- 
lish themselves before long, provided measures are 
taken to protect them from similar attacks in future 
winters. This protection is a matter of great difficulty 
but, having had so serious a lesson recently, it may be 
hoped that the wardens in charge will put forth extra- 
ordinary efforts to protect hereafter the few antelope 
that we now have under control. 
