PREFACE. 



The publications on ^ame laws orig-iiially contemplated by the Bio- 

 logical Survey and outlined in its reports comprise three series: (1) 

 A summary of the laws relating* to seasons, shipment, sale, and licenses; 

 (2) a digest of laws relating to nongame birds; and (3) a digest of 

 provisions for the enforcement of game laws. The first of these pub- 

 lications was issued in 1900 and has since been revised each year; the 

 second was published in 1900 and revised in 1902; the third is now 

 published for the first time. No other general work or compilation 

 of game laws contains existing provisions relating to enforcement, 

 and heretofore to comjjare such laws it has been necessar}^ to have 

 recourse either to the statutes or to the separate pamphlet editions of 

 the game laws of each State. 



In number of game laws and frequency of change in their provisions 

 the United States probably surpasses all other countries of the world. 

 Nearly 700 game laws have been enacted by State legislatures since 

 the passage of the Lacey Act in 1900. Man}' of these laws are local in 

 character, some have been amended, and a few have been repealed; 

 but a large number of general provisions are still, nominally at least, 

 in force. Of these a great many are dormant through lack of ade- 

 quate means of enforcement, in spite of the fact that an important part 

 of the legislation of the last seven years has comprised measures 

 designed to give effect to the great body of game laws now on the 

 statute books. It is thus evident that the chief need of game protec- 

 tion at the present time is not so much an increase in the number of 

 game laws as more effective enforcement of those alread}^ enacted. 

 The problem of how to make the rapidly growing and frequenth^ 

 changing mass of legislation readily accessible to the general public is 

 one which has not yet been satisfactorily solved, and the rapid in- 

 crease in population and in the number of persons who hunt makes 

 its solution more and more difficult, notwithstanding modern systems 

 of publicration and distribution adopted by the game departments of 

 most of the States. 



In the fifty-five years which have elapsed since the office of game 

 warden was first established, the population of the United States has 

 increased from less than 25,000,000 to more than 82,000,000, and during 

 this period the proportion of those who hunt has pi-()bal)ly increased in 

 even greater ratio. The number of those who hunted in 1905 is con- 



9 



