892 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 3, 1910. 
a few United States soldiers and volunteers,- and 
toward the middle of February were joined by 
Sublette, with two companions, who announced 
that war had been declared against Mexico. 
Toiling through the mountains in true winter 
weather, the party marched on until they came 
to one of Bent’s ranches and at last reached 
Taos. From this on the author's route was 
much among the Mexicans of the various towns 
until, at last, turning his face eastward, he came 
back across the mountains, and once more found 
himself in the Cheyenne village, whence soon 
afterward he returned to the East. 
It was here that Garrard met George F. Rux- 
ton, whose well-known “Life in the Far West’’ 
has been more than once referred to at length 
in Forest and Stream. It is one of a group of 
books, treating of almost the same country, and 
of the same time, of which Garrard’s and the 
“Oregon Trail" are two others. 
It is exceedingly interesting to read these books 
and to see mentioned in them constantly, and in 
most familiar fashion, names that to old-timers 
in the West are familiar as household words. 
Men with whom, in old age, we have perhaps 
ourselves associated; men, with whose sons and 
daughters we have lived familiarly as contem¬ 
poraries. The generation which knew these old- 
timers — Carson, Bridger, Jack Robinson, Jim and 
John Baker, Bent, St. Vrain, Sublette, Hugh 
Monroe. Ike Edwards, Bill Gary, Symonds, 
Beaubien, La Jeunesse, Roland, and a hundred 
others whose names could be given, is passing 
away. 
These names belong to the history of the 
early West. Soon they will be historic only, for 
those who have known them will also have 
crossed the Great Divide, and there will be none 
who can recall their personality. 
To Rear Game Birds in Connecticut 
An effort contemplated for the State of Con¬ 
necticut will, if successfully carried out, do much 
to restock the covers of that State with game 
birds. More important than this, experiments 
will be carried on in this connection which may 
prove of high interest and value to gunners. 
Herbert Iv. Job was recently appointed State 
ornithologist of Connecticut. He is a bird lover, 
well known for the beautiful photographs that 
he has taken and the interesting articles and 
books that he has written about birds. He pur¬ 
poses to join forces with another bird man and 
to set on foot the work of rearing.game birds 
and wildfowl for the State of Connecticut. 
* At Darien, G. D. Tilley, a man of scientific 
tastes, an enthusiast over waterfowl and game 
birds, has a place where for some years he has 
been rearing wild birds of many sorts and from 
many lands. He has a very complete plant, 
ponds for wildfowl and houses and cages in 
which a multitude of birds are kept. Many of 
these are foreign birds — flamingoes, storks, geese 
and ducks from the Old World, and gallinaceous 
birds from South America—but a large number 
are North American birds. Here there is room 
and the equipment for rearing our native birds, 
and here Mr. Job with the assent, of the authori¬ 
ties—if this can be had—purposes to carry on 
an elaborate line of experimentation. 
The plan is as follows: Mr. Tilley, who has 
made a study of the propagation of game birds 
and waterfowl in captivity, has agreed with the 
State ornithologist to allow the free use of his 
fine equipment for experimentation of all sorts 
relating to wild birds. This offer has been ac¬ 
cepted, and the aviary and hatchery at Darien 
is to be known as the Connecticut Ornithological 
Experiment Station, a branch of the Storrs Ex¬ 
periment Station of the Connecticut Agricu'tural 
College, of which the State ornithologist is, ex- 
officio, a member of the faculty. Mr. Tilley is 
to be assistant to the State ornithologist. 
Besides experimentation relative to the value 
of birds to agriculture and the attracting and in¬ 
crease of useful birds, it is hoped to secure from 
the Commissioners of Fisheries and Game per¬ 
mission to keep native game birds for purposes 
of experiment, and also co-operation in an at¬ 
tempt to propagate game birds for the State on 
a large scale to restock the State. 
As fast as the methods are perfected and sys¬ 
tematized for propagating a species of game bird 
or waterfowl, the result? would be given to the 
public through bulletins of the Storrs Experi¬ 
ment Station, with a view to enabling every 
landowner to propagate his own game. The 
breeding stock raised in this State hatchery 
would be distributed over the State under care¬ 
ful supervision, and thus the work would be 
multiplied from many centers instead of depend¬ 
ing upon one establishment. 
A breeding stock of quail has already been 
offered for the start, and efforts will be made 
to begin the work at once. Experiments are to 
be conducted with the ruffed grouse and other 
native species, with studies of the availability of 
such foreign kinds as the popular Hungarian 
partridge, which breeds readily in captivity. A 
bulletin could be published soon on the propa¬ 
gation of the woodduck and other native wild 
ducks. A special marshy pond is to be prepared 
for experiments with the canvasback in hope of 
solving the secret of its propagation. Studies 
are to be made of diseases of game birds and 
their prevention. 
The combination of these two workers in this 
most interesting field seems ideal. Mr. Job is 
an expert on wild birds in their haunts, and Mr. 
Tilley on those in captivity. The joint researches 
of these enthusiasts can hardly fail of achiev¬ 
ing interesting and valuable results. 
On the financial side this work can be done at 
small expense to the State. Mr. Tilley is a man 
of some means, who does this work for the 
love of it, and sells birds to some extent in order 
to maintain his very expensive establishment. 
Beyond selling game birds to the State for 
much less than imported birds would cost, he 
asks nothing more. The Connecticut Agricul¬ 
tural College hopes to secure an appropriation 
for a reasonable permanent salary for the office 
of the State ornithologist to enable him to de¬ 
vote his time to these various important public 
problems, and in this desires co-operation from 
the game commission. By this plan at slight ex¬ 
pense the State would have at once a working 
equipment of great practical value to sportsmen; 
in fact, a State game farm ready to hand, which 
otherwise it would take great sums of money 
and years of time to secure. 
The problem of quail breeding in confinement 
may be considered almost solved. Dr. Hodge 
was signally successful, and it is reported this 
year that about 400 quail were successfully reared 
at the Sutton Hatchery. The great problems to 
be faced have to do with food and disease, and 
from disease the greatest danger is that of in¬ 
fection, which in the past seems to have been 
communicated to many broods of young birds 
from the hens which hatched them, or from in¬ 
fected ground on which poultry has lived.- 
We know less of the ways of life of the 
ruffed grouse, though Dr. Hodge reared these 
birds for three generations. These problems, 
however, are near solution, perhaps nearer than 
any of us understand. 
Quail and grouse reared in this way could be 
turned out at the proper time in State refuges 
or on private grounds, and increasing, would 
spread rapidly. 
When the experimenters in Connecticut have 
reached a point where they can with certainty 
rear bobwhite and the ruffed grouse in captivity, 
there are other American birds that may be re¬ 
introduced to Connecticut with profit. Time was 
less than a hundred year ago, when the heath 
hen or pinnated grouse was found in that State. 
This bird still has a precarious foothold on the 
island of Martha’s Vineyard, and its cousin of 
the West, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, if brought 
here and protected, would readily adapt itself to 
domestication and would become a beautiful 
ornament of Connecticut fields. 
The mountain and valley quail of the Pacific 
coast may profitably be reared, and when, if ever, 
Connecticut shall establish a series of State reser¬ 
vations, wild turkeys may be turned out on them 
to shift for themselves. It is true that great 
birds like the turkey, and birds of the open, like 
the pinnated grouse, would not be likely to hold 
their own against the constant persecution to 
which they would be subjected, but a continuous 
stocking and a more or less rigid posting of 
much private land would tend to keep these birds 
long with us. 
