March 15, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
335 
Ring'Necked Pheasant in Tioga Co. 
BY PHILIP S. FARNHARI. 
The ringnecked pheasant, while not to be 
compared with the ruffed grouse, is bound to 
become one of our important game birds for 
the reason that it can be successfully propagated 
and does well in our climate. 
I have watched the results of stocking with 
this game bird with a great deal of interest, 
and can give very accurate figures on the re¬ 
sults obtained in Tioga County, New York. 
In the spring of 1907 the Owego Rod and 
Gun Club liberated twenty-three birds which 
were imported from Europe, and five others 
which were obtained from local breeders. The 
imported birds were delayed so long on the 
road that, when they arrived, they were in 
very bad condition, some of the hens not being 
able to stand, and it did not seem possible that 
they could live. They were liberated, how¬ 
ever, and in a short time all were in good con¬ 
dition. 
The first season at least five were killed by 
Italians and unscrupulous gunners, and one 
other was killed by a farmer who said he 
thought it was a hawk. If no more were lost 
this would bring the original stock down to 
twenty-two. From this nucleus the numbers 
have increased rapidly until now the county is 
fairly well stocked. I would estimate that 
Tioga county now has upward of twelve hun¬ 
dred birds. 
The season for shooting the male bird was 
opened last fall and about thirty were killed, 
according to the incomplete record which was 
available. 
About fifty young birds were received last 
fall from the New York State game farm and 
were liberated in suitable cover. A consignment 
of these birds was also received from the 
Massachusetts game farm of the American 
Game Protective and Propagation Association. 
These last were liberated upon a thousand-acre 
game refuge near Owego, New York, where 
they will be protected for ten years. These 
birds were full grown and have adapted them¬ 
selves to the conditions on this refuge and have 
been seen at intervals during the winter. 
It was not the intention of the sportsmen 
of this locality, when introducing the pheasant, 
to have a bird to take the place of the grouse, 
but rather as a protection to the grouse, as we 
hope the shooting will be divided, thus giving 
the grouse a better chance. 
From the results in Tioga county it would 
seem that the future of the pheasant is well 
established in this locality. 
To persons wishing to stock with these 
birds, I would recommend that the stock be 
obtained from birds bred in this country rather 
than imported ones, as the native-bred birds 
are already acclimated and are more likely to 
be strong and healthy than those which endured 
a long trip in close confinement. 
A great deal has been said about the dam¬ 
age done by pheasants to agricultural interests, 
and I note that there is now an agitation in 
Massachusetts to have an open season for 
them, on the ground that the birds have be¬ 
come a nuisance to the farmers. I remember 
a few years back when the same story came 
from certain counties in New York State, 
where the birds were quite plentiful, with the 
result that the season was opened. It was 
rather amusing, however, to note that just 
previous to the opening of the season a great 
many of the farmers posted their lands against 
hunting. It was very evident that if these birds 
had become a nuisance the farmers wished to 
abate it themselves. I am rather inclined to 
believe that the agitation for the open season 
did not come from the farmer. 
I have talked with a great many farmers 
through central and western New York and 
have failed to find one who did not speak very 
highly of the pheasant as an insect destroyer 
and express a v/ish that there were many more 
on his farm, even if they did eat a little corn. 
I am strong for the pheasant. 
Aspects of the Minnesota Game Code. 
BY A WARDEN. 
The game season of 1912 opened in the 
State of Minnesota more auspiciously for sports¬ 
men than any season in years. This particularly 
favorable season can largely be laid to a wise 
and careful administration of the game laws. I 
would have said a wise enforcement of the 
game laws had not the science of game preser¬ 
vation by spreading a knowledge of the game 
code and encouraging a sound moral attitude 
in the public mind toward heeding them for 
the benefit of the whole people, supplanted noth¬ 
ing more than iron-clad enforcement. Practical 
experience has taught the majority of game pro¬ 
tectors that infringements of the game laws 
largely grow from ignorance of the offender. 
Generally speaking, the game laws are the least 
accurately known of any. Though official force 
will always have to be used to cope with a cer¬ 
tain element who defy the law out of pure 
malice and a desire to gain the long end of the 
bargain by pre-season slaughter, the education 
of the major portion of landowners, ta.xpayers 
and sportsmen regarding the game laws seems 
to be uplifting the conditions throughout the 
State. 
In the public mind wardens have ceased to 
be the enemies of the people. Wardens have 
never been enemies of the people, though many 
who were bent upon personal gain through dis¬ 
obedience of the law, have been apprehended 
and brought to account for their waywardness 
and have tried to create that inimical impres¬ 
sion. In a State where the greater number of 
hunters are a race bred from the hardy stock 
of the Old World that conveniently forgets the 
law when the gain in disobeying it was imme¬ 
diate, it is nothing short of remarkable what 
strides have been made in securing obedience 
through dissemination of knowledge of the law, 
especially in certain sections of this State. 
The flagrant violator of the law' is the man 
who does most of his shooting in his own 
county. Particularly is this true of deer and 
moose shooting. Both species are shot out of 
season, and a certain glory in escaping punish¬ 
ment is taken by those who evade the law. 
Many of the shooters care nothing about preser¬ 
vation of game, thinking it the property of those 
who live v/here it breeds, entirely overlooking 
the fact that game belongs to the State. Upon 
my annual trips to a point near the Itasca State 
Park, I have twice come upon instances of pre¬ 
season shooting of deer, and from the evidence 
I could gather, of course unsubstantiated, felt 
certain that tracks led to the cabin of the viola¬ 
tor. One redeeming feature that I came upon 
among these settlers was the refusal to shoot 
a doe whether with or without young. The set¬ 
tlers are few. Each one of a community in his 
turn shot a deer and distributed the meat among 
others. They are poor people, having not more 
than a couple of cows of the poorest sort, a 
pig or two, a few hens and a plot of sandy 
soil upon which to scratch out a meager exist¬ 
ence. In so far as common custom makes the 
law' and the will of the people enforces it. these 
deer shooters were acting within their common 
custom and before their own wills. But the 
license fees of a good many hundred sportsmen 
were used to protect and propagate these deer 
on State lands, and these hundreds should have 
an equal chance in the sport of shooting them. 
If an outsider went into this section and 
began shooting before the season opened, or 
without license, each one of the native settlers 
would be up in arms, though they pay no atten¬ 
tion to the law they would invoke upon the head 
of a stranger. The problem of law enforce¬ 
ment in these sections is serious. Among the 
better class no man can be found who lives in 
the country to act as warden. Even some county 
officials have been known to aid natives to es¬ 
cape punishment and outwit detection at the 
hands of wardens sent specially to put a stop 
to pre-season game destruction. Very few war¬ 
dens care to go into this hack country to prose¬ 
cute law violations, as these rabid natives are 
very resentful over being spied upon. Fortu¬ 
nately this class of law dodgers is growing 
smaller as the lands over which they hold sway 
are being cleared, and the work of farming en¬ 
grosses them. Nothing but a patient educational 
system will succeed in coping with them. 
Without doubt the greatest number of law 
violations come from an ignorance of the law. 
Enough prosecutions are being made in every 
section to furnish examples to willful violators. 
If the articles of the game law be known, if a 
digest of it is kept before the people all the 
time, it has never failed to be a forerunner of 
lessened infraction. A Virginia warden has re- 
