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 The Audubon Societies 115 is especially visible in the care and feeding of animals. It seems to me that this idea opens vast possibilities, and I beg every one who is now reveling with a grateful heart in the bird music of June, to aid in establishing a Song Bird Reservation this summer, be it of one acre or of one tiiousand. M. O. W. A Connecticut Game Preserve For a number of years past there has been maintained in the town of Hampton, in Windham county, Connecticut, a game preserve, which has features of imusual in- terest, not only for sportsmen but for all concerned in bird protection. Obviously, a preserve which Is to be a useful agent in the work of game protection, and is intended to make up in some degree for the shortcomings of the game laws, must be based upon less selfish motives than the sportsman's preserve of the ordinary kind. It must provide a refuge and suitable breed- ing ground for the birds, and not simply protect them from one man in order that another nia kill them. Such preserves are more often advocated on paper than tried in reality, for they are generally supposed to involve such large outlay for land and maintenance and to offer so little benefit in return, that they are held to be far beyond all possibility of at- tainment. The preserve whirli is here described is of interest, as it ^ll^^ how far wrong this assumption is, anil how an almost ideal game preserve, on a ci^nsideraiile scale, was established through the efforts of one man, Mr. K. Knight Sperry, of New Haven, witii so little difficulty and with an outlav so insignificant that there is the best of hope that it ran and will be initiated elsewhere; and with a degree of success that was far in advance of the most sanguine of ihosi- who watchet! the experiment. This preserve comprises iietween one and tws(iuare miles of farm and woodland, and includes a small stream. The ownership of lhi> propcriN i> di>tril>uted among seven or liglil people, who have granted Mr. Sperry the right III preserc ihe game on their farms, on condition that he would not shoot there himself, and would bear the expense of post- ing the land with the necessary signs forbid- ding hunting, and would stock the grounds with birds. The land-owners, on their part, agreed to do no shooting on their lands and to allow no others to shoot there. As they live on the farms they are able to enforce this prohibition without much difficulty, and the expense of watching the preserve is thus practically nothing. The chief item of expense was to procure and post the signs forbidding hunting. These were stenciled upon boards one foot square. About sixty signs were put up. The cost of these is not recorded. Though there are a considerable number of Partridges on the preserve, the principal game birds are Quail. Each year about two dozen of these birds, costing seven or eight dollars for the lot, iiave been liber- ated on the grounds. The birds have been obtained from one of the tiorthwestern states, as southern birds do not endure the climate well and either migrate or die off during the winter. In order to be a success, a game preserve must, first of all, provide food for the birds, or they will not be able to remaiti there. The natural resources of the land are generally sufficient to support the birds during the summer months, but in winter the case is different, and if a large bird population is to be supported with such liberality that they will tiot be driven to forage elsewhere, some additional food supply must be provided at that season. This has been done by planting cacii year a couple of small patches of wheat or buckwheat, which is left to go to seed, and as the stalks of the plants project above the snow in winter the i>irds are able to find the food at all times and are kept in good coiuiition, even in the se- verest weather. There have been no other expenses worth mentioning. The total cost has been so small, botii for starting and keeping up the work, that the sum necessary could be raised without much difficiiltv by sub- scription among the sport>men of even the >malle>t t((Mi>, il the' could be coll-