The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-02-02
HEN PHEASANT IN
JERSEY NEEDS AID
Attempt Made to Open Season
on Female Bird Whose Pro-
lection Ends April Is.
SPORTSMEN ARE OPPOSED

The five years close season on female
ring neck pheasants In New Jersey ends
on April 10 and unless tho Legislature
continues the protection both the hen
and the cock birds may be killed next
fall II Is understood In legislative
circles that an attempt will be made to
permit the shooting OF both species AT
the present session, but sportsmen and
conservationists are urging the Board
Of Fish and Game Commissioners to in
troduce bill to continue the protection
10 the hen pheasant.
Sportsmcn point out that at the
present time twenty-eight States, raising
and stocking their covers with pheasants,
allow no shooting at all, and New York
and Illinois, states stocked with
pheasants and having an open season.
permit only the killing OF the cock bird.
New Jersey permits the shooting Of
the male bird from November 10 to De-
,ember 10, limiting the sportsman to
three birds a day.
In New York State hunting upstate is
only permitted on the last two Thurs
days in October and the first two Satur-
days in November, four days IN all. the
sportsman being limited to Kill only
three cock birds in season.
on Long Island, where pheasants are
more plentiful. the season lasts from
November 1 to December 81. and the
day limit is four birds and the seasons
limit thirty male birds. 1t might be
remarked that New York has four State
game farms. while New Jersey has
but one to supply birds throughout the
twenty-si" counties Of the State.
oregon's Experiment killing Hens
Oregon. the first state in the Union
10 begin the propagation and liberation
4. i IT, \ II. H. "a
the birds became acclimated and the
law permitted the shooting OF the male
bird. There was camor, however. be-
cause Of the great increase OF the birds.
10 allow the shooting OF both tho hen
and the cock. Oregon legislators ac-
Ceded within few years the birds were
shot ont and Oregon had to begin the
work all over again.
Al the present time, the introduced
pheasant may noNbe killed anywhere In
the state with the exeception OF the
Chinese male pheasant in Union county
between October l and October 10.
What has happened in Oregon will
happen in New Jersey. conservationists,
outdoorsmen and sportsmen say. particu-
larry with a State Of the size of New
Jersey having 100000 gunners who take
out licenses yearly.
II the females, the breeders, are killed.
there is no hope of increase. for no game
farm could hope to keep up with the an
nual killings in the game fields. II the
game farm at Forked River could raise
and liberate annually $4,000 birds, with
100000 gunners in the field. killing of
;he breeders, the covers would be de-
pleted quickly.
The State OF New Jersey does not
raise $4,000 birds = year. Game birds
cannot DE raised Just as poultry. for
when kept In close confinement diseases
appear and cut down the broods. As a
matter OF fact. while Duncan Dunn and
his assistants may hatch 10000 eggs a
year. not all the young birds lives to
maturity.
Diseases among game birds are SO
common that fields where they are raised
cannot always be used year after year
consecutively because experience has
taught the fields must be rested To ac-
quire more space to raise pheasants was
the reason why the Board Of Fish and
Game Commissioners purchased add.
tional farm lands at Forked River last
year.
What game farms depend upon ir
raising pheasants Is to keep in the GOV.
ers OF the State sufficient breeders tina,
there will be natural increase. TIC
keep up this natural increase Is the
work the Game Commission tries to do
u ldTUicT, WIG
Is sportsman, too, has found recently
on his New Jersey farm. fifteen her
pheasants. He wrote the board asking
for cock birds. Three were sent Ir
the natural course OF events that means
number of broods Of wild birds
Another problem that the Game Com
mission has to meet in the supplying OF
game birds Is that Of killing Off the
liberated young birds Pheasants are
haI ~, Ar Afax .s,I
turned out In September. These birds
attain their growth by the time the
cunning season opens In New Jersey
November 10.
They are Just becoming acclimateJ
but have not the experience In self
protection that wild birds have and they
are easier for the gunner TO get. II
all these female birds are killed on
should protection be taken from them
New Jersey merely has dead birds and
dead birds are not an asset in game
stocking.
League Favors Protection.
r. however. the female birds do es.
cape the gunner during the open season
they breed in the wild the next spring
and much better sport is enjoyed be-
cause they are really wild birds.
When Duncan Dunn, superintendent,
~ the State game farm, was In charge
or the Rutherford Stuyvesant game farm
at Allamuchy. in Warren county. only
cock birds were permitted to be killed
and they spread so rapidly that half q
dozen farms were leased to give them
cover. for usually from 60 to rs pei
cent OF every brood are cock birds
Then the experiment was tried OF kill
irg both the hen and the cock bird. The
FIRST yeas the cunning was good, the
second year the birds had been swep,
away. the leases OF ths farms cancelled
and the work OF the game farm had &c
Be done all over again.
New Jersey some years ago tried the
experiment OF killing OF both sexes OF
deer. Under the buck law. limiting the
sportsmen to kill only the male animal
the State had been restocked with deer
Deer was so plentiful that a demand was
nadh tust as La being mazda NOW. 10