Man's Relation to the Grouse 271 



tively unimportant because too extensive for the birds to fully use. 

 In some areas, such as the Adirondack Forest Park in northern New 

 York, where fire is rigidly controlled and lumbering of any kind 

 prohibited on public land, a little forest fire now and then is literally 

 a godsend to the game of the area. 



AS A CONSERVATIONIST 



Laws as a Means of Conserving Grouse. Laws, like the proverbial 

 poor, we always have with us. This is no less true of game laws than 

 of others. For a time after the first colonists arrived in the North- 

 east, the social organization was so loose and the supply of game 

 so plentiful for the few men there to harvest it, that there was no 

 need for fonnal laws to restrict man's pursuit of wild animals. But 

 as the settlements expanded and game occasionally became scarce 

 locally, restrictive laws were quickly enacted. Understanding man's 

 part in reducing game populations, it was only natural that they 

 should feel that the losses might be checked by restricting man's 

 liberties. 



There were probably very local, and less formal laws in parts of 

 the Northeast in the seventeenth century, but the first law on grouse 

 that became a matter of permanent record was a partial closed 

 season in New York in 1708. However an earlier law in New York 

 in 1629 first set up the control of the hunting privilege on all game 

 in the state. (These and most of the subsequent references to dates 

 of laws are taken from Palmer, 1912 ) . 



The spread and jurisdiction of laws increased rapidly throughout 

 the nineteenth century. Restricted seasons, curtailed bag limits, 

 limitations on use of certain types of weapons, and the prevention 

 of sale followed one after the other. The chronology of some of the 

 more important of these events affecting grouse in the Northeast 

 is as follows: 



1818: Massachusetts— season closed March 1— September 1. 



1820: New Jersey— season closed February 1— September 1. 



1837: New York (Kings, Queens, New York, and Westchester 

 counties)— purchase or sale prohibited out of season. 



1838: New Jersey— closed season extended to January 10— No- 

 vember 1. 



1846: Rhode Island— season closed February 1— October 1. 



