654 
FOREST AND STREAM 
feel of the comfortable grip; and that innate, 
breathless, powerful thrill of wonderment and 
expectation of what will my kill be. 
Into the danger zone swept our spotted vic¬ 
tims. They were more mallards; the lordliest 
of the clan of ducks. Off to the left they swung 
and saw us just as they reached the head of the 
angle of forty-five. But too late! The thunder 
leaped into light; and the smokeless blended with 
the insufferable density of the greasy black-pow¬ 
der. Coughing and spitting out the abomination, 
I asked Daniel if he had our kill listed and found 
out that apparently only two ducks out of that 
entire flock was dropped. Followed debate and 
counting on the part of Daniel, and that was 
all we could make out; furthermore those two 
we did kill fell almost in the boat. While we 
stood there, back of us a flock of some twenty 
pierced the atmosphere pass-ward. 
“Oh-o-o-o, look at that,” I said in wonder¬ 
ment, amazed to think that they should have 
passed us. “What’s the use of laying in the 
blind; they will come and eat out of your 
hands.” 
We watched that array sweep on, unconscious 
of the fact that a “Piper”-eating, pumpkin pie 
manipulating evil genius in yellow lay in wait 
for them. Only one question assailed us; how 
many would he kill? Here was a chance for 
four drams of powder and the lesser measure 
of shot to show their powerfulness. 
Bang! 
It was a detonation like a siege gun—and as 
dead as a door-nail, one crumpled up, seemed 
to hang hoisted in the air as the instantaneous 
second charge was flung into that astonished, 
and utterly demoralized aggregation. Two flut¬ 
tered wildly downward, and one, badly wounded, 
flopped down further on. We could see Fred 
in hot pursuit after his quarry, loading as he 
ran up the incline. Then bang! and he finished 
him. 
“I guess we got enough now, Dan, old boy,” 
I remarked, knocking the ashes out of my pipe 
and refilling. “You will have to bequeath your 
neighbors down the line fresh fare. We cannot 
possibly hold all these, and Fred has more. We 
will quit now.” 
Senator McLean Raises Grouse and Quail 
The Senator is on Speaking Terms With Every Bird on His^Farm 
Springfield, Mass., Nov. 12, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The question is often asked “Why is not more 
attention paid to raising our native game birds 
rather than the imported birds such as pheas¬ 
ants?” The answer is, that the pheasants are 
easily raised and the method of hatching and 
rearing them is well understood, while very litttle 
is yet known as to the quail and ruffed grouse. 
Most of the states are experimenting along 
these lines with different degrees of success. 
I was much pleased a few days ago to have 
the pleasure of visiting the reservation of Sena¬ 
tor George P. McLean in Simsbury, Conn., and 
to learn first hand as to just what success the 
Senator has had with the quail and ruffed grouse. 
Senator McLean, as all sportsmen know, is the 
joint author of the Weeks-McLean Migratory 
bird law and is greatly interested in protecting 
our song and migratory birds. 
At the same time, he believes that everything 
possible should be done by the several states to 
increase our native game birds, particularly the 
quail and ruffed grouse. He is so much inter¬ 
ested in this, that he has established a large 
reservation of 3,000 acres where no shooting is 
allowed and where he is carrying on his experi¬ 
ments. 
During the past season, he has raised a brood 
of six ruffed grouse and a large number of quail. 
The grouse were hatched under a bantam hen 
and reared under conditions as natural as possi¬ 
ble in a yard about 100 feet square with a wire 
top and sides. Smal ltrees and brush were left 
in this yard so the young birds could have them 
for protection. 
The grouse at the present time are full grown 
birds and very tame, so much so that when Sena¬ 
tor and Mrs. McLean go into their yard to see 
them, they fly up to them and look for the good 
things that they are sure to bring. The day I 
visited the farm, I was permitted to go into the 
yard and see these birds. Senator McLean had 
his pocket full o'f chestnuts and as soon as he 
was inside the enclosure, the birds flew up to 
him and lit on his lap where he fed them all the 
chestnuts they could eat. They would eat the 
nuts as fast as he could cut them up. 
He has a name for each bird and the bird will 
come to him when he calls it by name. I speak 
of this to show how tame these ruffed grouse 
are, it being commonly supposed that a grouse 
cannot be tamed, but these birds having been bred 
Ssnator George P. McLean, Holding a Bunch of 
Grouse, Raised on His Farm in Connecticut. 
in confinement are certainly the tamest birds I 
have ever seen. 
It takes a great deal of patience to carry on 
the kind of experimenting that the Senator is 
doing, but I believe he will be well repaid for 
it and the sportsmen all over the country will be 
very grateful to him for trying to solve the 
problem of “HOW TO RAISE OUR NATIVE 
GAME BIRDS.” 
The Senator in years gone by was a very en¬ 
thusiastic bird hunter, but he realizes that the 
conditions to-day are very different than they 
were thirty years ago. This change has come 
about in many ways. The hunter now has the 
help of a trained bird dog. He has an improved 
gun, learns to shoot at a trap, and is carried to 
the hunting ground in an automobile or a motor¬ 
cycle- He can hunt through several good covers 
in a forenoon and return home for dinner. 
He says that with all the improved methods 
of hunting and the large and steadily increasing 
army of sportsmen, it will, from now on, be a 
problem for the Game Commissioners of the 
several states to keep a supply of game birds 
for the sportsmen to shoot, and for this reason 
he is trying to solve the problem of raising our 
native birds artificially. 
It will do any sportsman good to come into 
contact with the Senator from Connecticut and 
to see what he is doing on his reservation in 
Simsbury. He understands the game question 
thoroughly and is going about to solve it in his 
own way. 
By trapping the vermin on his reservation, he 
is increasing the wild birds very perceptibly, and 
as one walks through the woods along the beau¬ 
tiful trout brook, the partridges flush up in all 
directions, showing what protection will do. 
He is not alone in his undertakings, because 
his wife seems to enjoy the work as well as he 
does and is interested in every new experimnt. 
He has a very competent caretaker, who works 
along the lines laid down by the Senator. 
I trust that such work as is being done by 
Senator McLean will be undertaken by many 
other persons who are interested 
GEO. H. GRAHAM. 
