286 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



Secretary of Agriculture is made unlawful. The introduction 

 of English sparrows and starlings is specially prohibited. This 

 act also prohibits interstate commerce in the dead bodies of 

 animals or birds, or parts thereof, Avhen killed contrary to the 

 laws of the State or if the State prohibits their export. All 

 birds, or parts thereof, when brought into a State are subject 

 to the same law^s that would apply in case the birds were pro- 

 duced in that State. The operation of this act has been very 

 satisfactory. Federal officers have prosecuted offending hun- 

 ters, dealers and cold storage companies with such vigor and 

 firmness that market hunting for interstate traffic has been 

 practically suspended. 



The numberless ducks and geese reared in the vast territory 

 included in the Northern States, Canada and Alaska, follow 

 definite routes in migrating and are concentrated in winter 

 within a narrow strip along the Southern coasts. As a result 

 of being persistently hunted in these congested areas, a steady 

 decrease in their numbers became alarmingly evident in the 

 North. The number of cranes, rails and shorebirds also fell 

 off from the same cause. Hunters in the South not realizing, 

 or indifferent to, the evil of unrestricted pursuit, were loth to 

 forego even a part of their shooting. Those along the migra- 

 tion routes, where the decrease was most evident, became 

 divided into two factions; one, conservative, in favor of abol- 

 ishing spring-shooting, the other, prodigal, against it. Each 

 succeeding session of the legislatures in the various States was 

 the scene of hard-fought struggles over this question. Finally 

 the matter was taken to Congress, where, after much discus- 

 sion, a bill known as the Migratory Bird Act was passed and 

 approved in 1913. On the premise that all migratory birds 

 that do not remain the entire year in any State are in the cus- 

 tody of the United States this act established a daily closed 

 season for all migratory game from sunset to sunrise ; a gen- 

 eral five-year closed season for band-tailed pigeons, cranes, 

 swans, curlews and all shorebirds excepting black-breasted 



