414 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Feeding The Pheasants 
By Frederick J. Davis 
Ovvego, N. Y., March 14, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The extreme cold weather of the past few 
weeks, accompanied by snow storms of unusual 
severity, has caused considerable suffering among 
the game and birds in this locality. Forty-two 
inches of snow has fallen here since February 
13th, and most of it is still on the ground and 
packed down. 
In a swamp about two miles from the corpora¬ 
tion line a large number of English pheasants are 
wintering, and the Owego Rod and Gun Club has 
been feeding them twice a week ever since the 
severe weather commenced. Nearly a thousand 
pounds of corn and other grain has been distrib¬ 
uted, by members of the club and farmers living 
in that neighborhood, at different places in the 
We Picked Up a Congealed Cock Pheasant. 
swamp, which the birds have found and devoured. 
The birds are found in all kinds of shelter. Where 
the heavy snow has broken down the flag or cat¬ 
tail it has formed little covered spaces and the 
pheasants are not slow to find these places, which 
afford them protection from the cold and storm. 
One female pheasant has taken up her winter 
abode in a rabbit hole under an old dead stub. 
Eight pheasants have come into the village and 
twice daily visit the back yard of a kind hearted 
citizen, who takes great delight in feeding them. 
They have become quite as tame as chickens. 
Only one dead pheasant has been found by 
members of the club this winter, which speaks 
well for their wintering qualities. This was a 
cock bird, and whether he had been killed acci¬ 
dentally or had starved is hard to state. The 
famished crows had about devoured the bird 
when found. The fact that numerous crows have 
been found dead in the fields shows how severe 
the winter has been. 
A farmer living in the northern part of the 
county has reported to Game Protector Yaple that 
one morning recently, during the very severe 
weather, on going to his barn he discovered six¬ 
teen partridges in the hay mow and on the barn 
rafters. He scattered grain around, and every 
morning since there have been from five to 
twelve of the birds there feeding. The Rod and 
Gun Club, on being appraised of his humane act, 
promptly wrote him commending his action and 
inclosing a check to reimburse him for the grain 
he had fed. It is rather unusual for so wary a 
bird as the partridge to actually come into a build¬ 
ing in such numbers, and shows to what extrem¬ 
ities they have been driven this winter for food. 
On all open spaces in the Susquehanna River 
large numbers of ducks can be seen. They are 
mostly blue bills and canvas backs, and quite a 
number of them have become so tame that they 
swim about and feed under the highway bridge, 
apparently unconcerned as numerous pedestrians 
stop and observe them. The water is clear and 
only about two feet deep, and it is an interesting 
sight to watch the canvas backs dive and propel 
themselves under water, searching under stones 
for food. 
Every spring hole along the Owego Creek has 
a full quota of sheldrakes, and fears are ex¬ 
pressed by the fishermen that large numbers of 
brook trout will be destroyed by these fish eaters. 
REINDEER IN ALASKA. 
This week’s cover illustration, which we pub¬ 
lish through the courtesy of “The Breeder’s 
Gazette,” of Chicago, shows a herd of reindeer 
in Alaska belonging to the National Government. 
There are in that country about 35,000 of these 
animals, and the grazing territory of that region 
is said to be able to support ten million. The 
present reindeer are the offspring of 1,280 animals 
imported into the country not so many years ago, 
which would indicate that they are capable of 
rapid propagation. 
H. M. Tjernagel, the Government’s local super¬ 
intendent, wrote, in a recent issue of the above 
mentioned paper, of the prospective benefits con¬ 
ferred by reindeer upon the country, and said in 
part: 
“The reindeer are distributed among the natives 
by a system of apprenticeship. At each station 
promising young natives are selected by the local 
superintendent as apprentices for a term of four 
years. The number of apprentices at each herd 
is governed by the number of deer in the herd. 
At the end of his first year of apprenticeship an 
apprentice receives four female and two male 
deer; the second year, five females and three 
males; third year, six females and four males; 
fourth year, six females and four males. In ad¬ 
dition he receives for the first three years provi¬ 
sions to the amount of $150, $100, and $50, re¬ 
spectively. A native thus becomes the absolute 
owner of reindeer only after he has served an 
apprenticeship of four years. 
“Other natives not apprentices may acquire 
deer by barter or purchase from natives having 
them. 
“Besides furnishing food, the reindeer also 
supplies the Eskimo with clothing. Before I came 
to Alaska I believed the Eskimos to be able to 
withstand cold a great deal better than people of 
more temperate climes. I am now convinced that 
an Eskimo would suffer from the cold of an Iowa 
winter if dressed as Iowans dress. My little ones 
are out playing just as well as the Eskimo chil¬ 
dren in spite of 25 or 30 degrees below. In 40 
degrees below I am just as comfortable as an 
Eskimo, and was reared in Iowa. The whole 
secret is to dress so as to conserve the heat of 
the body. For this purpose clothing made from 
reindeer hides is admirable. It is light in weight 
and almost impervious to wind. Every shred of 
clothing I use during the coldest weather and for 
all-day drives, excepting only a suit of medium- 
weight underwear and a shirt, weighs 12 pounds 
and 4 ounces. 
“But before his meat is eaten and his hide 
turned into clothing, a reindeer may have served 
his owner as a driving deer for a number of 
years. At two years old he is broken in; at seven 
or eight years old the chances are he will be 
butchered, as he is then getting old and rather 
slow for driving.” 
DUCKS BOUND NORTH. 
Galesburg, N. D., March 16, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
There is every prospect of an early spring up 
this way. The weather is about what we .usually 
get a month later; snow all gone, temperature 
mostly above freezing. I saw three flocks of 
ducks yesterday, am not sure whether they were 
pintails or mallards. They were going north. 
Have seen no small birds yet except sparrows, 
and they stay here all winter; some crows also 
wintered about here. 
JOS. P. WHITTEMORE. 
Bringing Out the Feed Bags. 
NOT ENOUGH PROTECTION. 
The present game laws are not popular because 
they do not afford the game enough protection, 
according to a recent address by Dr. F. S. Pal¬ 
mer, of the Department of Agriculture, before 
the Minnesota Protective League at Minneapolis. 
E. A. Gleasby, northwestern Federal game in¬ 
spector, advocated the education of game war¬ 
dens, farmers and children as to the value of 
game protection. 
Tree planting on National forests has to be 
confined to comparatively short intervals in spring 
and fall. In spring it starts when the snow melts 
and stops with the drying out of the ground; in 
the fall it comes between the fall rains and first 
snowfall. 
