Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-04
GAME MEMS TRIP.
States Mongolian Pheasant Re.
serve at Winchester Viewed.
One of the Committee of Game Protective
Association Talks Interestingly to
Spy Man.

Messrs. Sullivan Forehand, E. f,
Swan, e. T. Smith and V. f. Prentice,
members of the committee appointed at
the formation of the Worcester Game
Protective Association, last Monday
evening, to confer with State Game
Commissioner Bracazett, with a view to
the introduction of the Mongolian
pheasant in Worcester, went to Win
chester, Thursday.
The party left on the s O'Clock train
for Boston and arrived at Winchester,
where Commissioner Brackett is located,
shortly after 10 O'Clock. They had sew
eral hours to spend in consultation
with the commissioner, and some time
was also consumed in looking over the
states reserve there. The committee
returned home early in the evening,
thoroughly pleased with their trip and
confident that their mission had not
been in vain. George B. Inches of
North Grafton the fifth member of the
COMMITTEES, was unable to accompany
his fellow-sportsm
After his return home, Sullivan Fore
hand told something about the trip to a
representative of the Spy, who called
upon him at his home on Benefit street
later IN the evening.
Mr.. Forehand said that Commissioner
Bracket had been breeding the Mon
golian pheasant at Winchester for some
| time, and that he had worked hard and
zealously to perform the duties of his
position, adding that in the past five
years he had not taken a days vaca-
ton. Mr.. Forehand stated that the ex-
perlments that the commissioner has
been carrying on in the breeding Of
pheasants in confinement have been
| most successful. He does not, how
| ever, agree with the commissioner in
| the method Of propagation, and be-
lieves that better results might have
been obtained had the birds been liber-
ated from year to year.
| The committee found that Commits
sioner Bracket had about 125 pleas
| ants in confinement upon the place.
| This number may at first seem large,
but is really small in comparison with
| the number that have at times in for
mer years been confined there. The
| recent severe snow storm broke down
many OF the commissioner coops and
| buildings, with the result that almost
as many birds got away as remained
For that reason the committee, Mr.
Forehand says, did not feel sure that
they would be able to get many birds
| immediately for the Worcester associa-
heartily In sympathy with the move
ment here. and has promised to lend his
! assistance and to send some birds here
as soon as possible
The birds which were given their lib
erty by the breaking Of the
coops by the high wind and under the
heavy weight of snow, remain in the
vicinity, Mr.. Forehand says. and their
tracks can be clearly seen in the snow
q fers0It f1e nd mo
pheasants are being Matched and
| reared by an incubator and brooder Of
Commissioner Brackets own design
and constructed by him in his spare
time. This incubator, it is said
matches a very high percentage of the
eggs, very few Of which prove to be un-
fertile.
Commissioner Bracket last year be-
| gan the breeding Of jack rabbits, and
he is now propagating them In connec-
ton with his other work in Winches-
| ter, with a view to turning them loose
| in various sections of the state. Jack
rabbits are very prolific breeders, and
a small colony implanted in any sec
tion soon furnishes a sufficient number
for the sportsmen.
Mr.. Forehand says ne believes that
the new association is going to accom-
plish a good deal of good, and that II Is
a most laqdable and conlmendable ef-
fort But he believes, also, that some
restriction should be made whereby a
few so-called sportsmen cannot shoot
the birds as rapidly as they are put in
to the preserves.
In speaking Of the game outlook for
the coming year, Mr.. Forehand said;
'T think on the whole we are going to
have plenty of birds in this state. But
1 denounce most emphatically this in
discriminate killing OF game birds for
the market There is nothing that will
deplete our game preserves quicker
than this. We have men here in this
eity-you know them and know them
who do nothing in the open season
but shoot birds. They call themselves
sportsmen; call them pot-hunters and
nothing else. They kill every bird they
can, and then, when the legitimate
sportsman goes out for an afternoons
or a days sport some time during the
season, he finds that those who are in
1t for business rather than pleasure,
have killed about all the birds. A senti-
ment against such practices should be
| cultivated here, and this is one of the
things that our association intends to