Bird Protective Laws and their Enforcement^ 



By T. GILBERT PEARSON 



Secretary of the National Association of Audubon Societies 



LAWS ior the protection of wild hirtls and 

 animals have been enacted in greater 

 numbers in the United States than in 

 any other country in the world. In 

 a government bulletin on "American Game 

 Protection," Dr. T. S. Palmer states that the 

 earliest game laws were probably' the himting 

 privileges granted in 1G29, by the West India 

 Company, to persons jilanting colonies in the 

 New Netherlands, and the provisions govern- 

 ing the right of hunting in the Massachusetts 

 Bay Colonial Ordinance of 1647. 



As soon as the United States Government 

 was formed in 1776, the various states began 

 to make laws on the subject and these have 

 increased in numbers with the passage of 

 years. For example, between the years 1901 

 and 1910, North Carolina alone passed three 

 huntlred and sixteen different game laws. 

 As various forms of game birds or animals 

 showed indications of decreasing in numbers, 

 new laws were called into existence in an 

 attempt to conserve the supply for the bene- 

 fit of the people. Not infrequently laws were 

 passed offering bounties for, or otherwise 

 encouraging, the killing of wolves, pumas, 

 and other predatory animals, or of birds re- 

 garded as injurious to growing crops or to 

 poultry. 



State laws, intended primarily for the pro- 

 tection of wild life, may be grouped as follows : 



First, those naming the time of the year 

 when various kinds of game may be hunted; 

 these hunting periods are called "open sea- 

 sons." 



Second, the prohibition of certain methods 

 formally employed in taking game, as for 

 example, netting, trapping, and shooting at 

 night. 



Third, the prohibition or regulation of the 

 sale of game. Bj' destroying the market the 

 incentive for much excessive killing is re- 

 moved. 



Fourth, bag limit; that is, indication of 

 the number of birds or animals that may be 



1 By the courtesy of Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson this 

 further chapter from his book A Manual of Bird 

 Study, to be published shortly by Doubleday, Page 

 and Company, is given advance publication in the 

 Journal. 



shot in a day; for example, in Louisiana one 

 may kill twenty-five ducks in a day, and in 

 Arizona one may shoot two male deer in a 

 season. 



Fifth, the provision of protection at all 

 seasons for useful birds not recognized as 

 game species. 



The term "game," as defined today, in- 

 cludes bears, coons, deer, mountain sheep, 

 caribou, cougar, musk ox, white goat, rabbits, 

 squirrels, possum, wolf, antelope, and moose. 

 Game birds include swans, geese, ducks, rails, 

 coots, woodcock, snipe, plovers, curlews, 

 wild turkeys, grouse, pheasants, partridges, 

 and quail. Sometimes other birds or animals 

 have been regarded as game. Robins and 

 mourning doves, for example, are still shot in 

 some of the southern states as game birds. 



Little was done in the way of securing laws 

 for the benefit of song and insectivorous birds 

 and of birds of plumage until 1886, when the 

 bird protection committee of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union drafted a bill for this 

 specific purpose. This bill, besides extending 

 protection to all useful non-game birds, gave 

 the first clear statutory terminology for de- 

 fining "game birds." It also provided for 

 the issue of permits for the collecting of wild 

 birds and their eggs for scientific purposes. 

 The states of New York and Massachusetts 

 adopted the law that year. Arkansas fol- 

 lowed eleven years later, but it was not until 

 the Audubon Society workers took up the 

 subject in 1910 that any special headway 

 was made in getting states to pass this meas- 

 ure. Today it is on the statutes of all the 

 states of the Union but nine, and is generally 

 known as the "Audubon Law." 



In all the states but Florida and Mississippi 

 there are special state officers charged with 

 enforcing the bird and game protective laws; 

 usually there is a game commission of three 

 or more members, whose duty it is to select 

 an executive officer who in turn appoints 

 game wardens throughout the state. These 

 men are paid salaries in some cases; in others 

 they receive only a per diem wage, or receive 

 certain fees for convictions. License fees are 

 usually required of hunters, and the money 

 thus collected forms the basis of a fund used 



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