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ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE I. Map illustrating the need of greater protection for wild
ducks

II. Diagram showing close seasons for wild ducks in 1901.
III. Map showing divisions proposed by Hallock Code ....

Page.

Frontispiece.

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IV. Map showing States which protect introduced pheasants for a term of years..

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V. Map showing States which limit game bags.

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VI. Map showing States which require nonresidents to obtain hunting licenses...

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VII. Map showing States which prohibit sale of certain game at all times

VIII. Map showing States which prohibit export of game.

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DIGEST OF GAME LAWS FOR 1901.'

I. GENERAL DISCUSSION OF GAME LAWS.

INTRODUCTION.

The game laws now in force in the United States are of two kinds, Federal and State. Federal laws regulate interstate commerce in, and importation of game; the preservation of game in Alaska, the Indian Territory, and the District of Columbia, and on Government reservations. State laws regulate the capture, shipment, and sale of game within State jurisdictions. Canadian laws, like those of the United States, may also be divided into General laws, comprising chiefly regulations concerning the export of game; and Provincial laws, corresponding to State laws, which govern the capture, shipment, and sale of game. In some States certain counties have special statutes or are partially or entirely exempt from the operation of the general game laws. In the four States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, where local statutes are especially popular, there are probably more game laws for the three hundred or more counties than in all the rest of the United States. It should be noted, however, that these local laws are enacted by the States and not by the counties themselves. State legislatures are jealous of their rights in such matters, and, except in Mississippi, seldom delegate even the fixing of game seasons to county boards of supervisors. In many instances these laws do not conform to those of adjoining States or counties, and even in so fundamental a matter as the definition of game there is a noticeable lack of agreement.

DEFINITIONS OF GAME.

In Bouvier's Law Dictionary game is defined as "Birds and beasts of a wild nature obtained by fowling and hunting;" in the Code of Mississippi as "all kinds of animals and birds found in the state of nature commonly so-called." Both these statements are too general to meet the requirements of modern conditions. The laws of Michigan, British Columbia, and New Brunswick go to the other extreme and

1 The present report deals only with laws concerning animals and birds which are properly game. Legislation regarding nongame birds will be found in Bull. No. 12 of the Biological Survey.

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define game birds as "any birds protected by this act," and those of Nova Scotia as certain enumerated birds and animals. Such definitions are open to the objections that they may include many species which are not legitimate game, that they may not include onehalf or even one-fourth of the kinds of game actually found within the State, and furthermore that they are subject to constant change with each new amendment as species are added to or stricken from the list.1 The groups of animals and birds which may be considered legitimate game are well marked and comparatively few in number and may easily be so defined as to avoid the objections just mentioned.

2

The game of North America is practically limited to four groups of mammals and four of birds. The game mammals are (1) 'big game' or ruminants and peccaries (Ungulata); (2) bears and raccoons2 (Carnivora); (3) rabbits and squirrels (Rodentia); and (4) opossums (Marsupialia). Game birds, as defined by the American Ornithologists' Union, comprise (1) Anatidæ, commonly known as swans, geese, brant, and ducks; (2) Rallidæ, including rails, coots, mud hens, and gallinules; (3) Limicolæ, or shore birds, comprising plover, snipe, woodcock, sandpipers, and curlew; and (4) Gallinæ, including wild turkeys, grouse, prairie chickens, pheasants, partridges, and quail. Certain mammals and birds are sometimes classed as game which, for various reasons, might preferably be otherwise regarded. Among such mammals may be mentioned ground squirrels, muskrats, and woodchucks; and among birds, cranes, wild pigeons, doves, flickers, night hawks or bull bats, meadowlarks, reed birds, blackbirds, and robins. Ground squirrels, muskrats, and woodchucks are not held in high estimation for the table, nor are they usually hunted for sport. Cranes, pigeons, and doves are ordinarily considered legitimate game, but are now so rare that in many States they have been practically removed from the game list. Flickers, night hawks, meadowlarks, blackbirds, and robins are insectivorous, and although considered good eating, are far too valuable to be killed for sport or market. Reedbirds or bobolinks, while regarded as pests in the South and highly esteemed as song birds in the North, are treated as game in five States along the middle Atlantic coast, where they are neither particularly beneficial nor injurious. They may, perhaps, be properly added to the list in those States.

3

1A good illustration is the case of New Jersey. Deer are omitted from the list of game in the act of 1901, but are still protected under the clause 'other game animals.' Had New Jersey defined game as animals and birds mentioned in this act,' deer would now have no protection.

2 These animals are seldom mentioned in game laws. As a rule, bears are accorded no protection, though in Quebec they have a close season like other game.

In certain localities where blackbirds congregate in such numbers as to damage crops, it is probably best to deprive them, for the present at least, of all protection.

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