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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



California and Vermont; and on woodcock 

 in Illinois and Missouri. 



The most exqviisitely colored of all Ameri- 

 can water fowl is the wood duck, which was 

 formerly abundant about the ponds and 

 streams almost everywhere in the Eastern 

 States. So rapidly is it disappearing before 

 the remorseless advance of civilization that it 

 seems a pity the committee of specialists did 

 not include the name of this much perse- 

 cuted species in the former paragraph. The 

 suspension of hunting on the two great rivers 

 of the interior was avowedly done for the 

 purpose of permitting waterfowl to have 

 a safe highway from their winter feeding 

 grounds, along the Gulf Coast, to their nest- 

 ing areas in Minnesota, the Dakotas, and 

 Canada. The wisdom of this plan is at once 

 apparent and it is to be deplored that topo- 

 graphical conditions did not permit the es- 

 tablishment of like routes of safety along 

 the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. 



The above includes what we might call the 

 minor regulations proposed by the Biological 

 Survey Committee. Then comes the big 

 regulation, the one which is of absorbing 

 interest to every member of the vast army of 

 five milhon hunters in the United States. 

 This is the regulation which divides the 

 country into zones and prescribes the shooting 

 season in each. Touching on this point the 

 government experts already mentioned gave 

 out this statement by way of explanation: 



"More than fifty separate seasons for 

 migratory birds were provided under statutes 

 in force in nineteen hundred and twelve. 

 This multiplicity of regulation or zones to 

 suit special localities has apparently had any- 

 thing but a beneficial effect on the abundance 

 of game. The effort to provide special sea- 

 sons for each kind of game in each locality 

 merely makes a chain of open seasons for 

 migratory birds, and allows the continued 

 destruction of such birds from the beginning 

 of the first season to the close of the last. It 

 is believed that better results will follow the 

 adoption of the fewest possible number of 

 zones and the regulation of the seasons in 

 each so as to include the time when each 

 species is in the best condition, or at the maxi- 

 mum abundance, during the autunm. For 

 this reason the country has been divided into 

 two zones, as nearly equal as possible, one to 

 include the states in which migratory game 

 birds breed or would breed if given reasonable 

 protection, the other the states in which 



comparatively few species breed, but in 

 which many winter. Within these zones the 

 seasons are fixed for the principal natural 

 groups, waterfowl, rail, shore birds, and 

 woodcock. In no case does the zone boun- 

 dary cross a state line, and except in very rare 

 cases the seasons are uniform throughout the 

 states. Deviation from this rule leads ulti- 

 mately to the recognition of a multiplicity of 

 local seasons, which has done much to retard 

 game protection." 



The "breeding zone" referred to is made to 

 include all the states lying wholly or in part 

 north of latitude forty degrees and the Ohio 

 River. Twenty-five states in all are thus 

 designated and they embrace virtually the 

 entire region in which wild fowl in any num- 

 bers have been known to make their summer 

 homes today. 



The "wintering zone" consists of the states 

 lying wholly or in part south of this line, and 

 includes twenty-three states and the District 

 of Columbia. 



In the northern zone, the season when 

 ducks, geese, brant, and unprotected shore 

 birds are allowed to be killed is between 

 September first and December sixteenth, 

 that is, three and one-half months. At no 

 other season may they be hunted or taken 

 without making the adventurous sportsman 

 liable to the pains and penalties of the law 

 to the extent of a fine of one hundred dollars 

 or ninety days in jail. There are a few ex- 

 ceptions to this season, made out of respect 

 to existing state statutes or in deference to 

 expressed public opinion, but there are not 

 many. One of those is in New York State, 

 where, with the exception of Long Island, no 

 hunting is allowed until September sixteenth, 

 thus making the open season only ninety days 

 in length. Considering the number of gun- 

 ners in this large state and the relatively 

 small number of birds, one may judge the 

 season to be quite long enough. 



In the southern zone the shooting season 

 for shore birds is the same as in the north; 

 but the waterfowl season has been slipped 

 forward, that is, it is made to run from Octo- 

 ber first until January sixteenth. Here also 

 we find a few exceptions to the general rule. 

 There is, too, an open season in both zones, 

 running from two to three months, on the 

 killing of woodcock and rails. 



The above statements regarding open and 

 close seasons on migratory game birds refer 

 to a subject principally of interest to sports- 



