896 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 3, 1910. 
The Game Situation in New England. 
It is gratifying to note that these articles are 
bringing out newspaper comment. It shows that 
the subject interests the people. The Hartford 
Times calls attention to my statement that if the 
•sale of wild game were prohibited it ought to 
stimulate the production of game on farms, and 
discusses the question in a long and well written 
editorial. 
The Times calls attention to the fact that 
under Connecticut laws the farmer who owns 
the land cannot sell the game upon it, which 
nevertheless he is obliged to feed. This state of 
affairs is not peculiar to Connecticut. This con¬ 
dition or some modification of it exists in a large 
part of the United States to-day. The only pos¬ 
sible remedy is to repeal or amend certain laws 
so as to make it legal for people to raise and 
sell certain game. Hundreds of thousands of 
game birds arc reared on farms and sold an¬ 
nually in the markets of England and European 
countries, but this system which has been a suc¬ 
cess for centuries in Europe does not seem to 
appeal to us here, and so we are trying instead 
the experiment of liberating foreign pheasants 
and partridges here, with the expectation that 
they will do better than our native game birds 
under similar conditions. This is folly. These 
exotic birds may possibly maintain themselves 
and increase slowly if shooting and sale are pro¬ 
hibited. Pheasants have done this in Massa¬ 
chusetts. But in fifteen years’ time they have 
not stocked the State, for there are still many 
regions where not one has ever been seen. The 
moment the people are allowed to shoot them 
these introduced birds will disappear like mist 
before a gale. If we are importing these birds 
purely for esthetic reasons, the money devoted 
to this purpose could be used to better advan¬ 
tage in fostering and increasing our native birds. 
If, on the contrary, we ever expect to have a 
stock of introduced pheasants and Hungarian 
partridges^ large enough to furnish game for our 
tables they must be raised by private enterprise 
on farms and game preserves. 
Plundreds of wealthy Americans go abroad 
year after year for the shooting on Scotch, Eng¬ 
lish or French game farms. Some of the sur¬ 
plus game killed there comes into our markets 
and more would come if it could be legally sold 
here. 
Why should we not raise this game here, have 
game plentiful in our markets and keep the 
money of our wealthy epicures and sportsmen 
which now goes abroad? With five million hun¬ 
ters in this country we cannot expect nature to 
produce game enough for all. We must have 
productive game farms as we now have poultry 
farms. Should the State prohibit by law the 
sale of all poultry and turn out a stock of wild 
poultry to feed on the farmer’s crops while pro¬ 
hibiting him from killing any, we should have 
a state of affairs analogous to the present situa¬ 
tion of the pheasant in New England. It is 
logical under our present game laws to prohibit 
the sale of wild native game birds. But if we 
do this we should provide for something to take 
their place in the markets. 
Massachusetts already allows the sale of 
pheasants raised on game farms, and under her 
laws wildfowl may be sold in the markets. This 
gives an opportunity for the game farmer to 
raise pheasants and wild ducks for the market. 
There is now a demand in this country for 
pheasants and ducks for propagating purposes. 
Some species bring from ten to twenty-five dol¬ 
lars a pair alive. Marketmen have assured me 
that they will give three dollars a pair for the 
common ring-necked pheasant. The ordinary 
farmer does very well indeed if he averages a 
dollar apiece for his chickens and fowls all 
dressed. Wild ducks and pheasants are sold 
with the feathers on. Pheasants and European 
mallards may be easily reared by any good poul¬ 
try raiser or game keeper. The sale of mal'ards 
and pheasants in New England markets might 
well be allowed at any time. These birds, if 
properly reared and allowed to pick up a large 
part of their living, make excellent table fowls 
with the fine flavor of wild game. Let us make 
laws to encourage the raising of these birds for 
market and observe the result. 
Edward Howe Forbush. 
Nebraska Quail. 
Omaha, Neb., Nov. 26.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: A large majority of the best and most 
conscientious sportsmen of Nebraska are up in 
arms and want the law prohibiting the shooting 
of quail the year round in this State repealed, 
and they are going to see that this is done at 
the coming meeting of the Legislature. A year 
ago there were undoubtedly more quail in Ne¬ 
braska than ever before in the State’s history, 
but the ensuing winter was one of uncommon 
severity with its deep snows and intense cold, 
and the birds were largely winter killed—ex¬ 
terminated absolutely in many localities. 
These conditions have existed many times be¬ 
fore, and the sportsmen have become tired of 
this nonsensical prohibition. They want at least 
a short open season, using the argument that 
one severe winter, like that of last season, kills 
more birds than a'l the gunners in the State kill 
in ten years. A brief open season, they say, will 
always insure a few of the birds that are winter 
killed for the pleasure of the sportsman in the 
field and for a delicacy for the family table. 
When the birds are destroyed by the cold and 
snow of winter, no one is benefited, and the 
birds are gone just the same. The probabilities 
are bright for the month of November being set 
aside by the next Legislature as the open season 
for quail. 
The weather during the past few days has 
been much colder than at any previous time this 
fail, and the hordes of ducks that have been 
lingering up in the Dakotas came down with a 
rush. The shooting has been fine, especia ly 'on 
geese, mallards and teal. There are still many 
ducks in the North, and only a heavy snow will 
set them in motion for the softer climes of the 
South. 
Lawyer Bill Simeral has just returned from a 
six-day duck, goose and chicken shoot near Elm 
Creek. He had a great week of it, killing the 
limit on both mallards and Canada geese, and 
twenty-seven chickens. The latter he found in 
immense packs—sometimes a thousand or more 
in a pack—and in the bedraggled cornfields he 
found it almost impossible to get within range 
of them. He does not believe he knocked down 
a single bird within sixty yards, and he used a 
sixteen-gauge gun at that. A cap sheaf tb the 
bag was a fine old coyote, which he killed with 
No. 7 shot as it was running away from camp 
with a brace of mallards carelessly left lying on 
the ground. The coyote came up within a few 
yards of the tent to get the birds. 
Roy Welch, while shooting on the Loup with 
Sam Richmond and myself, killed a Canada goose 
weighing exactly fourteen pounds — a whopper at 
any place or any time. The net result of the 
day’s shoot was ten fine winter-clad mallards, a 
like number of greenwings and three geese. 
Emil Snyder brought in from the Platte a 
strange bird that puzzled him and his friends. 
1 hey brought the bird to my office and 1 iden¬ 
tified it as a Western grebe, although it was the 
first specimen I had ever seen. It is two-thirds 
the size of a full grown loon, which bird it re¬ 
sembles strikingly in all details, save coloration. 
Above it is blackish gray, with feathers palely 
edged, dark on the hind neck and back of the 
head; the lower region gray; quills ashen brown; 
bases of the primaries and most of the secon¬ 
daries white; below from bill to tail, pure silky 
white with dark touches on the sides; bill ob¬ 
scurely olivaceous, brighter along the edges and 
tip. 
Mr. Snyder on this trip saw a big fat fox 
squirrel swim the Platte with a big ear of corn 
in its mouth. The squirrel after much laborious 
struggling successfully crossed the swift flowing 
channel. He never once let go of the ear of 
corn. On the other shore where Snyder had 
followed it, it tried to drag the heavy ear of 
corn up an old cottonwood, and he killed it. A 
shame, I think, after the little fellow’s heroic 
voyage across the icy river. 
While the ground freezes hard every night 
now along our creeks and runs and low places, 
the jacksnipe refuse to leave. Yesterday Con¬ 
rad Young and Arthur Keeline were on Wild 
Parsnip Creek and bagged twenty-eight beauti¬ 
ful birds. Conrad said that in the eqrly hours 
of the morning they never jumped a bird, but 
after the sun was well up in the sky, and things 
warmed up a bit, they came in fine form, and 
they had a great day of it. 
Sandy Griswold. 
Odd Fox Capture. 
• Clarence Howland, of Catskill, N. Y., re¬ 
cently sent to Fred. Sauter, the taxidermist of 
this city, the skins of a big gray fox and a skunk 
to be preserved. The manner in which the fox 
was secured was somewhat unusual. Mr. How¬ 
land says of it: 
“I was out hunting on a high ridge about a 
mile northwest of Leeds in what are called the 
Five Mile Woods. On this high hill I came to 
a ledge of rocks and underneath it was a hole. 
I called to my companion, who was in the valley 
below me, that this looked like a good place for 
a fox. Then I stooped down and looked in the 
hole, and away in the back part thereof I plainly 
saw a pair of shining eyes. I took deliberate 
aim and the report was followed by a consider¬ 
able disturbance back in the hole. Mr. Schubert 
came up, and on looking in the hole we found 
we could see the fox, which had jumped for¬ 
ward as I shot. He got a long stick with a hook 
on the end, crawled in the entrance of the hole 
as far as he could, and after considerable patient 
work managed to get the fox out. It was a 
very fine gray fox and its pelt and tail had not 
been hurt by my shot, the fo^ having been hit 
right in the nose.” 
