birds nothing in the new regulations shall be permitted to conflict with them. 

 The approval with which these regulations have been received as a whole has 

 been most gratifying to the committee. It demonstrates thoroughly that public 

 sentiment has become aroused to the need of protection to native birds. 



Thq provision that the new law should not interfere with the bird laws 

 already existing in the states required nuich work from the committee formulat- 

 ing the regulations. Over 700 laws regarding bird shooting are in existence in 

 the forty-eight states. In order to harmonize them a number of exceptions have 

 been included with the regulations which will make the new law a harmonious 

 scheme for conserving the bird life uniformly throughout the country. 



The country is divided into two zones. Zone 1 is to be known as the breeding 

 zone. It includes twenty-five states, lying chiefly north of the Ohio River and 

 latitude 40 degrees. The closed season for this zone shall be from December 16 to 

 September 1 for water fowls and rails, with exceptions in nine states, where the 

 dates vary slightly. For woodcock the closed season extends to October 1, with 

 exceptions in ten states. The closed season for .shore birds, excepting for those 

 coming under the regulation of the five years' closed season, extends from De- 

 cember 16 to September 1, with slight modifications of these dates in ten states. 



Zone 2 is to be known as the wintering zone. It includes all the states south 

 of the breeding zone. In this, the closed sea.son for water fowl extends from 

 January 16 to October 1, excepting in Maryland, Virginia and the Garolinas, 

 where it is from February to November, and in Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico 

 and Arizona, where it comes between December 16 and September 1. The closed 

 season for rails, and also for coots and gallinules, comes between December 1 and 

 September 17, with slight differences in Tennessee, Louisiana and Arizona. For 

 woodcock the closed season extends from January 1 to November 1, excepting 

 in Louisiana and Georgia. The closed season for shore birds, including only 

 black breasted and golden plover, jack snipe or Wilson snipe and yellow legs, 

 the rest coming under the five years' regulation, is from December 16 to Sep- 

 tember 1, with the exceptions in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arizona and 

 Utah. 



The new law prohibits the shooting of all migratory game birds between 

 sunset and sunrise. This restriction has been objected to in New England and 

 in some of the western states, but the objection is not sustained because this pro- 

 tection already exists in a number of states, including New York, Ohio. Indiana, 

 Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas and Alissouri. At least half of the hunters in the country 

 have been subject to this restriction for years by the laws of their states and 

 most of them indorse it as a proper measure. Louisiana has even gone a step 

 farther. The shooting of birds after the noon hour is prohibited there, thus 

 giving them an additional advantage. 



The closed season for insectivorous birds now extends throughout the year, 

 excepting for reed birds and rice birds in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, the 



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