6 Monthly Bulletin 



PROPOSE FEDERAL LICENSE TO HUNT MIGRATORY BIRDS 



Passage of the New-Anthony bill to provide for Federal licenses to 

 hunt migratory birds and for the establishment of game refuges and public 

 shooting-grounds for such birds would affect about 5,000,000 American 

 sportsmen, the Bureau of Biological Survey, United States Department of 

 Agriculture, estimates. The bill has been favorably reported by the Senate 

 committee on public lands and surveys. In the House the bill is in the 

 committee on agriculture. 



The bill provides that each hunter of migratory birds shall obtain a 

 Lederal license, at a cost of %\ for the season, the licenses to be issued at 

 any post office in the United States. Out of the proceeds not less than 45 per 

 cent is to be spent by the Government, through a proposed Migratory Bird 

 Refuge Commission, in buying or renting land suitable for the establishment 

 of migratory game bird refuges which would serve as breeding and feeding 

 places for birds during the period of their flight north, or the closed season, 

 and as public shooting-grounds during the open season. An additional 45 

 per cent will be used for the enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act 

 and the Lacey Act, and the remaining 10 per cent for expenses in issuing 

 licenses and other administrative expenses. 



The bill provides that the Secretary of Agriculture shall be chairman 

 of the Commission, and tliat other members shall be the Attorney General, 

 the Postmaster General, and two members of each House of Congress. Rules 

 and regulations governing the administration of the proposed refuges would 

 be placed in the hands of the Secretary of Agriculture. The proposed 

 measure does not in any way obviate the necessity of procuring a State 

 hunting license. The National Association of Audubon Societies favors this 

 act, believing it will exert a vast influence on the protection of Wild Life. 

 T. Gilbert Pearson, President, has sent out a call for funds to finance the 

 work of the Association in favor of this bill at Washington. 



TO CONSERVE BIG GAME 



During the hunting season this fall more than 5,000,000 persons, 

 estimates the Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, will go out with a gun into the woods and fields of America. Their 

 going emphasizes the growing need of more adequate and uniform laws to 

 conserve and protect the country's dwindling game supply. 



"It has been the practice in many states," the Department says, "to 

 issue himting licenses for the open season to all applicants, with too little 

 regard for the available game supply of any particular area. The hunters 

 may far outnumber the animals hunted within a given section, and under 

 such conditions the extinction of big game especially is inevitable. 



"The Department of Agriculture advocates a limited license plan for 

 big game, based on annual estimates of game conditions in each district. 

 This means that the number of big game licenses issued for a given area 

 in one season would depend upon the number of game animals which it has 

 been determined in advance can be shared. Proper administration of this 

 sort should conserve game in the greatest numbers consistent with the reason- 

 able demands for local grazing and other interests, and obviate the necessity 

 for establishing perennial closed seasons, except on areas being restocked." 



