Pheasants and other foreign game birds are almost always given a close season of several years after introduction. They are protected in 30 States (see Pl. IV). In Oregon, so far as the ring-neck pheasant is concerned, this protection is confined to the region east of the Cascades and some of the counties in the western part of the State, but several other pheasants are protected in all the counties. Protection without limit is in force in California, Colorado, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Utah, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and some of the counties of Virginia. The periods expire in 1902 in Idaho, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas (thus leaving the birds without. protection for nearly a year, as the legislatures do not meet in these States until 1903); in 1903 in South Carolina and Wisconsin; in 1904 in Alabama, Minnesota, and Oklahoma; in 1905 in Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington (east of the Cascades), Rhode Island, and Ontario; in 1906 in Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming; in 1910 in Michigan, and in 1911 in Maine. These terms of protection are shown in the following table: Game birds protected for a term of years.

Does not include the ring-neck pheasant in some of the counties west of the Cascades, for which an open season has been provided.

RESTRICTIONS AS TO METHODS OF HUNTING.

Restrictions on methods of hunting are exceedingly numerous, and apply not only to the use of guns, boats, and dogs, but also to time, place, and conditions governing the killing of game. An attempt is here made to bring together the more important and more general of these restrictions and to group them in logical order. A somewhat arbitrary division has been adopted by placing the prohibitions under two main headings: (1) Restrictions on outfits or implements for hunting, including guns, ammunition, boats, blinds and other deceptive devices, lights for night hunting, dogs, ferrets, and weasels; (2) restrictions surrounding hunting, such as trapping, netting and snaring, night shooting, and killing game in snow. Limits placed on bags and requirements regarding licenses, although properly belonging to this general subject, are of enough importance to warrant separate consideration.

OUTFITS.

Restrictions on guns relate chiefly to size. A number of States prohibit the use of swivel or pivot guns in the killing of wild fowl, and many limit the size of the gun that may be used for shooting any game. The term 'big gun' as used in this connection may be defined as a gun larger than No. 10, except in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, where the maximum legal size is No. 8. Under restrictions on boats, four divisions are made: (1) Boats propelled by naphtha, gasoline, oil, steam, electricity, or similar motive power; (2) sailboats; (3) sneak boats, used in wild-fowl shooting, and (4) skiffs. Under the head of deceptive devices are included batteries, sink boxes, sink boats, sunken punts, bough houses, blinds, and all other kinds of stationary or floating ambush, whether on shore or in the water. Under the head of artificial light are included in two columns restrictions on the hunting of big game with lights, or 'jacking,' as it is commonly called, and laws prohibiting the use of fire or light of any kind in the hunting of wild fowl. The prohibitions in regard to the use of dogs are arranged under three heads: Hounding, practicing, and permitting to run at large. While hounding strictly relates to the chasing of deer and other big game, the term is here used to include also the hunting of birds with dogs. Under practicing are grouped restrictions against the use of dogs in close season, chiefly in training them to hunt birds.

The restrictions against permitting dogs to run at large are such as relate to allowing them to roam in localities where they may disturb game. In Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont the possession of deerhounds within the State is made unlawful, and New York prohibits their possession in Adirondack Park. The use of ferrets and weasels in hunting rabbits and hares is interdicted in a few States.

CONDITIONS.

Trapping, snaring, and netting are prohibited by many States, which recognize that these methods cause rapid extermination of game. Commission houses sometimes encourage the trapping of quail, as the game is in better condition for sale when trapped than when shot; but this is very properly discountenanced, and some States make it an offense to offer for sale birds which show no evidence of having been taken otherwise than by trapping. Several States specifically prohibit the use of grain or other food that has been soaked in opium or other narcotics, or in poison, for the purpose of stupefying or killing birds. Night shooting is treated under two heads-big game and water fowl. In the different laws night is variously defined, but it usually is designated as from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise. Killing in the snow includes what is known as 'crusting' big game, or shooting it when it is 'yarded,' and tracking and shooting rabbits and upland birds when the ground is snow covered. The various restrictions, both in regard to outfits and concerning conditions of hunting, are shown in the following table:

Prohibited methods of hunting.

[Crosses (x) indicate simple prohibitions; figures indicate qualified prohibitions, as explained in the corresponding footnotes.]