DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 157 



Of the cases above mentioned, 54 involved game birds and 3 nongame 

 birds. The first case nnder the Lacey Act reported to the Department 

 was one involving the shipment of 72 young prairie chickens from St. 

 Louis to Chicago in July, 1900, These birds were shipped under a 

 cipher address, without statement of contents on the package, and 

 were intercepted in transit, so that neither the carrier nor the con- 

 signee could be held responsible, and as the shipper could not be 

 located the case was dropped. The first case acted upon by a Federal 

 court involved the shipment of a small package of millinery samples 

 (containing among others 7 gulls and terns) from Brownsville, Tex., 

 to New York City in December, 1900. The shipper was indicted, 

 promptly plead guilty, and paid his fine, and the case was concluded 

 within a few weeks after it was first reported. 



A case which perhaps attracted more general attention than any 

 other was one based on information received by the Department in 

 September, 1900. The matter was referred to the local authorities 

 in Baltimore for action, and resulted in the seizure and confiscation 

 of 2,600 plume birds, offered for sale in violation of the State law of 

 Marjdand. The case was prosecuted through three courts by the 

 Maryland Fish and Game Protective Association, and the dealer was 

 compelled to pay a fine of $100 and costs. This action attracted wide- 

 spread attention in the millinery trade, and brought the Department 

 into correspondence with the leading wholesale millinery firms in 

 Eastern cities. The wholesale houses in Baltimore promptly withdrew 

 gulls and terns from sale, and assurances were received from the 

 Millinery Merchants' Protective Association and from leading houses 

 in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore that they would, 

 so far as possible, withdraw from sale and discourage the use of these 

 and other birds protected by local laws. 



The effectiveness with which such cases can be disposed of under 

 certain State laws is well illustrated by one instance in which, through 

 the energy of the game warden of Iowa, a conviction was secured and 

 the fine paid within three weeks after the evidence had been forwarded 

 from the Department. Convictions have been secured in a majority 

 of the cases involving illegal shipments from Iowa and the penalty 

 imposed in each of seven cases was a fine of $100 and costs, and in 

 another imprisonment for thirty days. 



But the results of the enforcement of the law are not to be meas- 

 ured by the number of prosecutions or by the severity of the penal- 

 ties imposed. Attention has been called to local laws which had 

 long remained dead letters; the methods of shipping game and the 

 devices resorted to in evading the regulations have been investigated, 

 and information thus secured can be used in preventing similar vio- 

 lations; it has been shown that evidence of illegal shipments that will 

 insure conviction can be obtained a thousand miles from the shipping 

 point and months after the offense is committed; and, finally, it has 

 been demonstrated that shippers are no longer safe as soon as their 

 game has crossed a State boundary. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



The publications of the year include 2 numbers of North American 

 Fauna (Nos. 18 and 19), 2 bulletins (Nos. 13 and 14), 2 articles in the 

 Yearbook of the Department for 1900, 6 circulars (Nos. 28-33, inclu- 

 sive), the report of the Division for 1900, and reprints of one of the 

 cii'culars and three previous publications. 



