A week or so ago a friend of mine from Aberdeen asked that if, in the course of my fall ramblings, I should happen to bring a Hungarian partridge to bag, I would send him the skin with feathers. It turns out the soft feathers of partridge are coveted by trout fishermen for tying flies. This inquiry, along with the surprise flush by my retrieving dog of a covey of partridge near my house, moved me to investigate the origins of this upland game bird in North Dakota, as begun in my last essay.
After some earlier false starts, but observing the success of releases in western Canada, North Dakota Game & Fish got serious about partridge in 1924. Officials also were hopeful for ringneck pheasants, which seemed to have taken hold in South Dakota, but partridge seemed the more promising prospect for North Dakota at the time.
First, the game and fish guys arranged, formally or informally, to establish limited refuge areas scattered around the state where releases could take place. Next, they bargained with a dealer in New York City to have 100 pairs shipped direct from Czechoslovakia for $1000. Once received at the state game farm in Grafton in April 1924, allocations of partridges were given to individual game commissioners for release in their own localities.
This caused a buzz in the state press as commissioners in Minot, Beach, Leonard, Oliver County, and possibly other places released birds to enthusiastic local response. A report from Leonard said, “The birds have the protection of the state game laws and anyone attempting to destroy them will be dealt with severely.” The commissioner in Beach warned partridges were so recognizably different from other birds “that no good excuse for killing them can be worked up.” The press there reported, “The birds, a trifle larger than quail, are adaptable to this climate and will be protected for five years.”
In Oliver County, according to newspaper coverage, “A canvass of farmers in [the] vicinity was made and a pledge secured from all to help in protecting the birds for a period of years.”
The 1924 cohort raised some broods, although the conclusion was it was better to release in fall, as it was impossible to get the birds on the ground early enough in spring for good nesting success. Game & Fish obtained and released another two hundred pair in 1925. Local sportsmen’s associations came forward to arrange sites and releases.
These sportsmen's associations, incidentally, appear to be the ancestors of the wildlife clubs that remain active in localities across the state and are important community organizations. Somewhere a wildlife club officer or old member must hold minutes and records of the origins and early activities of these clubs, which appear to be spontaneous local creations, and I would love to hear from anyone possessing such records.
Game and Fish ordered more than two hundred pairs of partridges in 1926 and tried a more large-scale release of a hundred pair at Spiritwood Lake, managed by the Stutsman County sportsmen’s club.
Meanwhile, ringneck pheasants were entering North Dakota from South Dakota without passports — and receiving mixed reactions from the public. Many sportsmen considered them unworthy gamebirds, and farmers complained they ate grain.
On the other hand, as the president of the Game and Fish Commission explained, “Quite different is the attitude of our sportsmen toward the Hungarian partridge. Here is a game bird in the best sense of the word — dainty, quick on the wing, elusive in its flight, and highly edible … Reports from various sections,” he said, “indicate that they are thriving and multiplying rapidly.” By the mid-1920s the partridge proposition seemed on its way to public acclaim and grand success in North Dakota.
