240 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Feb. 24, 1912 
Native and Introduced Game Birds. 
Somerville, Mass., Feb. 14 . — Editor Forest 
and Stream: I have noticed a considerable 
amount of dissension among sportsmen here in 
the eastern part of Massachusetts concerning our 
introduced pheasants. Several articles have ap¬ 
peared in the magazines at different times, and 
I have heard many discussions at meetings of 
hunters. The general sentiment seems to be 
unfavorable to this tame bird. Personally I have 
taken sides with the bird. 
Perhaps the great beauty of these birds, espe¬ 
cially in the case of the cock bird, has appealed 
to me. Certainly they make a pretty sight run¬ 
ning fearlessly about in the open and along the 
highway as they so frequently do. I have heard 
more than one person remark that they are too 
beautiful to shoot. 
The principal complaint of these hunters is 
that they are driving out our quail and ruffed 
grouse. Is it quite fair to blame this bird for 
the scarcity of quail of which we have had com¬ 
paratively few in the past few years? Why 
not put the blame where it belongs in regard to 
the quail. After the gunner, then the more or 
less certainty of their reduction by our occas¬ 
ional severe winter? 
While I could hardly be called a bird hunter 
of any great renown, my entire toll on both the 
quail and partridges has been a single speci¬ 
men of each which I secured in the same season 
several years ago, probably more by accident 
than otherwise, as I happened to get them both 
with snapshots. Yet I spend many days in our 
local covers, while hunting a small pack of 
beagles, and naturally have occasion to notice 
to some extent our game birds. 
The last covey of quail which I saw was a 
small flock of seven birds which we used to see 
nearly every week during the winter where sev¬ 
eral of us worked our pack of beagles in the 
vicinity of Tophet swamp, Lexington, three 
years ago. We always found them in about 
the same neighborhood, but they suddenly dis¬ 
appeared. I have heard of one flock of quail 
this winter in Middlesex county, by a party of 
hunters who helped along their extermination. 
Therefore, I see little necessity for worriment 
about the quail being driven out by pheasants 
in this locality. 
In regard to our partridge to the best of my 
judgment I should say that I have seen them 
in about the same numbers during the past few 
years. If I were to form my opinion from some 
days that I have been out, I would say that 
there were practically none, but there are other 
days when I have counted numbers of them. I 
remember one afternoon a year ago in Lexing¬ 
ton, when I counted nineteen partridges in per¬ 
haps three square miles. I feel reasonably sure 
that they were all different birds. I have seen 
several of these birds this year, but no quail. 
I have come to the conclusion that in work¬ 
ing a number of dogs, at the same time I see 
more birds flushed than the man who hunts with 
a gun only. Many times have I passed within 
a few feet of a partridge without knowing it 
to have it flushed immediately afterward by one 
of the dogs,- which convinced me that hunters 
going through the woods pass by gam^ a great 
many times, causing them to return home with 
the impression that there is little or no game. 
Let some of these hunters walk through the 
woods after the first light fall of snow if they 
wish to get some idea as to the amount of 
game. Of course this will be in closed season 
in this part of the country, but there are those 
who like to walk* out even if they cannot shoot. 
With a number of dogs working about through 
the brush, it seems to give the birds less chance 
to run with the result that they more often take 
wing. Many times I have seen them jump up 
just a few feet from the ground, and sit on some 
low bush watching the dogs casting about close by. 
The future of our grouse is limited here in 
the East, partly owing to the increasing number 
of guns, but principally to the fast diminishing 
amount of proper cover. Civilization is pushing 
out into the rural districts, land is being cleaned 
up, and the few covers remaining are allowed to 
burn over too frequently. This state of affairs 
is certain to drive out the ruffed grouse if there 
were no other good reasons. 
One favorable thing about the pheasant, one 
of the first things that impressed me about these 
birds, was the fact that they frequented such 
open country when there was at least a little 
thick cover at hand. Nearly all of them that 
I have seen I have flushed in the open places 
where there was hardly a bush to be seen; in 
fact, no brush at all. Just a thick growth of 
rank grass and rushes and some places where it 
did not seem as though there was enough of 
this to conceal a bird of such proportions. Only 
the other day a friend spoke of having seen 
some of the birds here in our own city in the 
narrow strip of rushes which border Alewife 
Brook, a small stream which forms part of the 
boundary line between our city and Arlington. 
These were wild birds and no woods nearer 
than three miles. Considering the increasing 
lack of suitable grouse covers and the doubt¬ 
ful prospects of replenishing what little remains 
with our native game birds, the day is coming 
when the hunter here will be glad that a bird 
has been found that can thrive here as this one 
apparently has. The time has arrived if the 
hunters were perfectly honest about it, and they 
were allowed to shoot these birds without re¬ 
straint. If the time ever comes when it will 
be possible to restock our covers with hand- 
raised native birds, and it is proven that these 
pheasants are a hindrance to such a work, I 
will leave it to the hunter to exterminate them. 
Many knowing ones say they are a hard bird 
to hit. I have always thought that they offered 
a comparatively easy mark for a fair shot, as I 
have flushed them in the open and watched them 
sail straight away with a poor showing of speed 
as compared with the speed of the grouse. 
Under all this clamor and complaint I have 
felt that I detected an uncontrollable desire to 
begin the open slaughter of these birds; a lack 
of self restraint in allowing these birds or any 
birds to remain under absolute protection for 
any length of time. All in all, I see no cause 
for alarm, for I see nothing that will save these 
birds when legal shooting is added to the per¬ 
secution which has already been practiced. I 
marvel that they have done so well, which fact 
in itself is some encouragement for their future. 
I see no help for them unless it is their ability 
to use their legs, spoken of by those who seem 
to know. Extermination will probably come for 
those who wish it without putting them in the 
class with birds and animals which are marked 
for extinction. Charles H. Shaw. 
Sale of Southern Game. 
New Orleans, La., Feb. 14.— Editor Forest 
and Strea'm: To those of us from the North 
who go out to kill our own game and prepare 
it for the table, it seems odd that we find snipe, 
ducks, quail, turkeys and woodcock in the mar¬ 
ket stalls and for sale. I was in the French 
market a day or two ago and saw some very 
fine ducks, barrels of them, for sale at from 
fifty cents to one dollar each. Of course none 
but the well-to-do purchase them at this figure. 
The most food is sold by the five and ten cents’ 
worth to the foreigners and negroes. Food is 
very high in price for a land that is so replete 
with advantages to grow it. A string of a dozen 
snipe were for sale at $10. A dozen woodcock 
were worth $10 to $12. Quail, abundantly in 
the markets now, are bringing from twenty-five 
to thirty-five cents each. The market hunters 
get from five to twelve cents each for them and 
dump them into boxes without care and ship to 
the market. 
A market hunter’s license costs $10; that is, 
if he is a native. Thousands of birds are killed 
without any license behind the shooter. You 
cannot blame the natives who have been taught 
that game is a sort of natural revenue-earning 
thing the same as the fish and oysters they take 
from the waters. Game and fish are to them 
what bananas are to the Central American who 
cuts and packs them to the market and gets his 
money. 
On the street any day one can see men who 
have shot a few nice ducks peddling them along. 
These are sold for the most part about the cot¬ 
ton board and the saloons. If you are anybody 
here and make a good killing, you of course 
take some of them to your friends and show 
the balance at your place of business. I see great 
lots of ducks and game being brought to the city 
daily. A party of three or four had out a 70- 
foot launch and literally plastered all their deck 
room with ducks during a two days’ hunt. How 
they could eat all of them I do not know. I 
really think—and always have been of this opin¬ 
ion—that a man should not kill more than he 
could eat. This is a law of nature that did not 
diminish the game supply before man got so 
civilized that he had to kill for his friends, too. 
Amos Burhans. 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., Feb. ig.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Senator Griffith has introduced a bill 
inserting in the general municipal law a new 
section providing for the acquisition and develop¬ 
ment of forest lands by counties, towns and 
villages. 
Senator Murtaugh, of Elmira, has introduced 
bills repealing the prohibition against the hunting 
of hares and rabbits with ferrets in Schuyler 
and Tompkins counties, and providing that any 
fish except black bass and pike perch may be 
taken in certain portions of Cayuga Lake by 
spearing, April 15 to June 15, inclusive. 
Assemblyman Brereton, of Warren, has in¬ 
troduced a bill appropriating $20,000 for the pur¬ 
chase of lands on Lake George for a fish hatch¬ 
ery, and for the construction of suitable build¬ 
ings, fixtures and ponds. 
A bill similar to Senator Roosevelt’s bill of 
last session has been introduced by Assembly- 
