The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1943-07-29

home for five weeks. Here, for a
few days, chicks must be watched
closely. If, by any mischance, the
brooder light that provides heat
should go out, the chicks congre-
gate for the warmth of their bodies
and pile up" causing many to
smother.
But mortality is low. Superin-
tendent Bailey says, providing there
is ample food. About ten per-
cent of the original eggs are in
fertile. Mature birds produced rep
resent about rs percent of the eggs.
After a few days in the brooder
house, the chicks are big enough to
come out into the covered runways.
BY the time they are three weeks
old they are ready to fly. They are
kept in the brooder pens for five
weeks, then moved to the larger
covered pens for three weeks, when
they + ready to liberate.
No Birds in Valley County
This seasons hatch will be taken
to many sections of Montana, par
ticularly where surveys have shown
that the pheasant population is
low. Because of the Short CROP
and by agreement with sportsmen
of the home territory, none will be
liberated in Valley county, the C
ton nearest the farm.
Birds thus produced, the super
intendent says, quickly learn to
shift for themselves. In wild con-
ditions they are taught much by
the mother hen. But the incubator
pheasant learns most of these
things by experience. In Bailey's
opinion, he is just as sporty as, if
not sportier than his wild brother.
The breeding hens and cocks are
kept I'VE for another seaSon in the
holding pens. They live outdoors
through the winter, although each
has a leather brazil on its wing to
keep it from flying from the open
top pen. Shelters protect them from
Montana billiards..
This is not all the work being
done at the game farm. Under a
program suggested by State Warden
j. S. Mcfarland and the state fish
and game commission, experiments
are being carried out to produce
a bird three-fourths Monaghan and
one-fourth Chinese to be planted
in Montana's high and brushy
areas. This is putting into practice
a state policy that birds should be
planted according to environment.
Monaghan Eggs Imported
This year. 1.4O0 eggs of proven
pure Monaghan strain were pur-
chased from the California game
department. In 1914, the hatch
from these will be bred to a pure
strain of Chinese pheasants. This
vEiI1 rsncT11f in q hird rrrffh hn1f ftn
blood of each. These in turn, will
be bred with pure Mongolians, thus
producing the variety desired.
Then there is the Chukar, most
controversial of all the popular
game birds. superintendent Bailey
mas AGO OF these on the farm to de-
termine, as he says, IF there is a
place in Montana for them"
The Chukar is a beautiful bird, a
little larger than the ubiquitous Hun,
with a characteristic W marking
on the face and neck. It's ~coloration
reminds many of the mourning
dove. The chukar, Manager Bailey
said, came from India and there
are two kinds-the mountain and
the desert. That at the game farm
is the desert type. He is known
as the bird that lives on practic-
ally nothing" He has been found as
far as 100 miles from any known
water. He will eat roots, tubers, or
sagebrush.
Like many Montanans, he is &C
climated to extremely cold winters
and intensely hot summers. Unlike
a drylander, he is not enthusiastic
about heavy rain. In fact, it doesn't
agree with him. The eggs are white,
with dark brown and black specks.
In Manager Bailey's words, "they
are of a homogeneous nature" The
cock chukar will take a mate for
life; if his mate dies, he may or
may not seek another one.
He's A POlygamist
This is in contrast with the more
Imorthodox Chinese pheasant, who