254 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Aug. 18, 1906. 
Owning Your Game Preserve. 
BY GEORGE ETHELBERT WALSH. 
The ordinarily accepted notion of a game pre¬ 
serve is so generally associated with extensive 
acres of virginal forests and undivided meadows 
or upland thickets, that it will be a surprise to 
many to know that much less ambitious schemes 
for keeping wild game have proved ramarkably 
successful. There are thousands of owners of 
comparatively small country places who' can em¬ 
bark in “game keeping” with an assurance of 
pleasurable and profitable success, and while the 
game for the most part consists of the small 
varieties of wild animals and birds, the rewards 
are none the less interesting and valuable. 
Modern methods of breeding our valuable crea¬ 
tures of the woods and fields have demonstrated 
that under proper conditions freedom of ex¬ 
tensive ranges is not a necessary essential to a 
successful issue of the undertaking. A few 
years ago it would have been considered a rank 
heresy to advocate the breeding of wild pheas¬ 
ants, hares, water fowl, turkeys, quail and par¬ 
tridges on a small or restricted game preserve; 
but numerous demonstrations of a practical 
nature indicate that the enthusiastic amateur in 
game breeding can do this without great diffi¬ 
culty. 
Owning your game preserve is a luxury that 
is not too expensive for the ordinary owner of 
thirty acres or more of good farm land to under¬ 
take. Hundreds of these small breeding farms 
and amateur game preserves scattered through¬ 
out the country are to-day proving important 
factors in the preservation of our small wild 
birds and animals. When thousands of country 
inhabitants enter into this work, we shall have 
a better solution to the problem of saving many 
of our wild species of birds and animals from 
threatened extinction, than any devised by legis¬ 
lators. For it is love of the harmless creatures 
of the woods, fields and streams that must event¬ 
ually make them our lasting companions and pre¬ 
serve their progeny for future generations. 
One does not enter into “game keeping” pri¬ 
marily for the money fin it, although profits may 
be realized which in time will more than pay 
for the cost of the outlay. A game preserve is 
not a money-making institution, nor should it 
be an expensive luxury denied to all except the 
very wealthy. A small, self-supporting game pre¬ 
serve conducted by an amateur lover of the birds 
and animals has more potential value for the 
future than half a dozen extensive preserves 
where thousands of acres are held in idle un¬ 
productiveness to satisfy the whim of some dis¬ 
tant land-owner. It is the close association with, 
and sympathy for, the wild creatures which 
makes the owner of a small game preserve so 
much superior to the former. 
The most annoying feature of owning your 
game preserve is the lack of responsibility and 
co-operation of neighbors. A higher sense of 
honor in considering a neighbor’s wild birds and 
animals as sacred as his pocket book would add 
greatly to the present movement in game keep¬ 
ing on a small scale. Many a man who would 
scorn the thought of appropriating another’s 
purse or stray domestic animal appears untouched 
by any sense of dishonesty in shooting pheasants, 
quail or turkeys which happen to stray from a 
neighboring game preserve. When neighborly 
co-operation raises the ethics of game keeping 
to a higher plane, we shall find our woods and 
fields abounding once more with the beautiful 
creatures of feather and fur. The irresponsible 
poacher with a shotgun or snare-trap, as well 
as particularly noxious four-footed destroyers of 
birds and animals which often haunt game pre¬ 
serves, will then be kept in check, and their 
depredations will be gradually eliminated from 
tile problem. 
One of the most popular inhabitants of the 
modern game preserve is the pheasant. Whether 
one can afford only the cheaper and more com¬ 
mon English and Mongolian varieties of pheas¬ 
ants, or indulge his fancy in such aristocratic 
members of the tribe as the golden pheasants, 
silver and Reeve’s pheasants or the beautiful 
Lady Amherst variety, the work of breeding 
them successfully on a few acres of land is 
neither difficult nor expensive. Twenty years 
ago it was the popular impression that these 
rarely beautiful birds could be raised success¬ 
fully only on large estates, but to-day the fallacy 
of this argument is fairly proved by many no¬ 
table examples. Several breeders have raised 
pheasants on small suburban grounds with less 
than twO’ acres of land for accommodations for 
houses and exercising grounds. 
Pheasants are high-bred, nervous birds, but 
they are easily tamed and reared as pets. They 
do well when confined in wire inclosures, but 
thrive better when given the larger freedom of 
many acres of woodland and open fields. A game 
preserve of thirty acres of rich woodland, with 
running streams of water, an artificial or natural 
pond or lake, and a few acres of open fields or 
thickets, can be successfully stocked with a flock 
of several hundred pheasants, quail, partridges, 
wild turkeys, rabbits, ducks, geese and pigeons. 
None of these interfere with the breeding and 
multiplication of the others. They inhabit the 
same woods and fields with proper regard to the 
rights of all. 
The chief consideration in propagating such 
game is that ample food is supplied for winter, 
and shelters provided against the severe storms 
and blizzards of our Northern States. In this 
respect better care can be given the birds on a 
small preserve than on a large one. The latter 
is often so extensive that feeding all the creatures 
is a difficult and expensive task. 
Our cold winters are exceedingly destructive 
to quail, and more are killed in one winter by 
the snow and by starvation than by the hunter’s 
gun. When the natural supply of food is covered 
with a foot or two of snow, poor Bob White 
has a hard time of it. Thousands of quail may 
be found snowed under after every severe storm, 
and in their search for food they dig under the 
frozen snow until feet and legs are cruelly 
lacerated. Buckwheat, sorghum, millet and cane 
are the most nutritious foods for the quail. They 
should be planted freely in the open fields along 
with Canatm peas for the birds, and when winter 
comes the straw and grain should be gathered 
in some sheltered place where the birds can re¬ 
sort. Food must be planted in the fields both 
for the summer and winter. Barley, oats and 
rye harvested in the straw and kept for winter 
use are also necessary for success. A feeding 
shelter is very simple. It may be that nature 
forms sufficient shelter under spruce and cedar 
trees, or an artificial bower of branches covered 
with straw can keep the ground comparatively 
free from drifting snow. 
So far as possible nature should be imitated in 
feeding and caring for the birds. Stacks of 
wheat, oats, rye or buckwheat in the field or 
under the shelter will attract the quail. They 
prefer to find food in the natural state and not 
threshed out and spread around. A visit to the 
feeding shelters once a week in winter is suffi¬ 
cient to see that all is going well with the birds. 
The restocking of any preserve with quail is 
a simple and inexpensive matter. A few of the 
old birds will wander away from the preserve 
and be shot by gunners. This is inevitable, but 
quail are far less migratory than generally sup¬ 
posed. If not frightened from the woods and 
fields where they were born, they will remain in 
the vicinity year after year, especially if supplied 
amply with food. New birds can be released 
every spring to restock the preserve, but if the 
old birds breed properly, new purchases will 
rarely be needed. In releasing new birds, about 
three hens to one cock makes the right propor¬ 
tion for the sexes. The box should be located 
near a stream and opened at night time. Partly 
fill the open end with straw and grain, and the 
birds will emerge from their confinement with 
less fear than if exposed suddenly to broad day¬ 
light. Before the following night the small flock 
will select a roosting place, and their wild life 
on the game preserve will begin. 
Quail bred in confinement are more domesti¬ 
cated than wild birds, and the progeny of a 
pair of tame quails will seldom wander from a 
woods or fields when released. A house suited 
for rearing squabs or pheasants is adapted to 
quail breeding. A tame quail hen will hatch the 
eggs as well as any other bird, but the nest 
should be made as nearly like those found in 
the wild state as possible. It should be located 
in some shady place in the grass or under the 
cover of some bushes. The quail hens will find 
such nests and use them for laying their eggs. 
If shooting and unusual disturbances are ab¬ 
solutely avoided on the small game preserve, the 
birds will multiply in numbers and rarely wan¬ 
der away unless their numbers grow to the point 
of overcrowding. The thinning out process 
should be made with box traps, and not with the 
shotgun. The latter alarms the birds so that 
many may desert the preserve and seek shelter 
in some public woods or on other private prop¬ 
erty. The box trap works silently and captures 
the birds alive without disturbing their mates. 
They can be sold for breeding birds to parks 
and game preserves at good prices. A pair of 
live quail are worth double the price of two dead 
ones. 
The pheasants of rare selection can be shut off 
in a small range by themselves. A wire in¬ 
closure costing less than $25 will keep them from 
straying away, and will also shut out dogs and 
similar enemies. Stray dogs are the greatest 
enemies to breeders of birds. If they do not 
actually kill the pheasants and quail, they frighten 
them so that they become wild and easily excited. A 
game preserve of ten acres inclosed by a woven 
wire fence is therefore more apt to give better 
results than a fifty acre preserve not thus fenced 
off. The wire fence makes poaching by man and 
beast more difficult, and the chances of destruc¬ 
tion to the pets are greatly reduced. A ten acre 
farm can be inclosed with appropriate wire fence 
all the way from $1.00 up, much depending upon 
the nature of the wire and the height of the 
fence. 
Nearly all the wild birds show fear at the 
sight of man or dog. The presence of a stray 
dog around a pheasantry is sufficient to drive 
these handsome birds into hysteria, and it may 
require weeks for them to overcome their terror. 
Likewise strangers appearing in the pheasantry 
during the breeding season will often cause the 
birds to desert their nests and spoil a season’s 
work. In nearly all cases the birds should be 
attended by the same person, and, so far as pos¬ 
sible, the same clothes should be worn. The 
wildest pheasants learn to distinguish between 
their owner and strangers. They become so 
domesticated and tame ‘"in a small pheasantry 
that they will exhibit no fear or excitement when 
fed or watched by those who have been kind to 
them. This fact makes them very desirable 
birds for a small game preserve. They become 
pets rather than game birds. They will even 
feed out of the hands of one who has the patience 
and love to cultivate their friendship and con¬ 
fidence. The quail are less inclined to accept 
the presence of man in their preserve, but after 
a few seasons of protection, they do not run to 
cover on the first approach, and in mid-winter 
they even come to the open feeding places at 
call. Both pheasants and quail in a small pre- 
