328 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 2j, Art. 2 



the history of waterfowl regulations. 

 Grateful appreciation is due to Mr. Bob 

 Becker, writer on wildlife, for photo- 

 graphs used for the frontispiece and 

 five other halftones. The frontispiece 

 pictures sunrise on a bayou along the 

 Illinois River, as seen from a duck blind. 

 Appreciation is due also to Mr. Arthur 

 S. Hawkins for his encouragement, which 

 he has continued even while on leave for 

 military service. 



Legal Protection 



Written laws establishing closed sea- 

 sons on waterfowl date back at least to 

 Henry VIII of England. In the year 

 1533 his government decreed partial 

 protection for waterfowl "between the 

 last Day of May and the last Day of 

 August" and, beginning in 1534, full 

 protection for their eggs "from the 

 first Day of March .... unto the 

 last Day of June then next ensuing" 

 (Anonymous 1770). As early as 1846 

 in the United States, Rhode Island 

 passed a law prohibiting spring shooting 

 of certain waterfowl (Palmer 1912). 

 Although this law was later repealed, 

 by 1900 in 9 states, or the territory now 

 covered by them, all spring shooting 

 had been abolished, and in 38 some form 

 of legal protection for migratory water- 

 fowl had been passed. By 1918 the 

 number of states prohibiting all spring 

 shooting had increased to 31, and only 

 3 states afforded no legal protection 

 whatever for waterfowl (Lawyer 1918). 



Up to 1913, no important waterfowl 

 hunting regulations had been enacted 

 by the federal government except in re- 

 lation to territories. Although many 

 attempts had been made by conserva- 

 tionists to establish uniformity in the 

 laws among different groups of states, 

 very little had been accomplished. 

 Finallv, a federal law known as the Mi- 

 gratory Bird Act, placing birds that 

 regularly migrate beyond state limits 

 under the protection of the federal gov- 

 ernment, was passed and made effective 

 in 1913. In 1916, a treaty was signed 

 with Canada, which, besides covering 

 certain migratory non-game birds, pro- 

 vided for limited open seasons on mi- 

 gratory game birds. The Migratory 

 Bird Treaty Act, making this treaty 



effective in the United States, was 

 passed in 1918. Regulations issued in 

 conformity with this act then and since 

 then over a period of years include a 

 reduction in the length of season, in bag 

 limit, daily shooting hours and number 

 of shells in gun; prohibition of the use of 

 bait and live decoys; the placing of some 

 species under complete protection, and 

 others under special protection by limit- 

 ing the number taken. 



Regulations for Illinois 



The principal federal waterfowl regu- 

 lations that apply to Illinois relate to 

 open season, shooting hours, bag limit, 

 the increased or complete protection of 

 certain species, use of bait and live de- 

 coys, and number of shells in gun. 



Open Season. — Changes in the length 

 of the waterfowl hunting season in Illi- 

 nois from 1900 through 1944 are shown 

 in fig. 1. The long open season on water- 

 fowl prevailing throughout the nation 

 until enactment of the federal Migra- 

 tory Bird Act is indicative of the 

 desire of state legislators to get for the 

 hunters of their respective states as 

 many birds as possible before their 

 passage into other states. "The fact 

 that seasons and bag limits on migra- 

 tory birds have remained so much more 

 liberal than seasons on resident game," 

 states Leopold (1933), "strongly sub- 

 stantiates the assertion .... that 

 people can be induced to conserve what 

 stays on their own land, but only the 

 exceptional individual will voluntarily 

 conserve what he shares with the com- 

 munity at large." In 1913, through 

 federal regulations, the Illinois water- 

 fowl hunting season was shortened from 

 225 days to 105 days and from that 

 time until the drastic cut of 1931 the 

 length of the waterfowl seasons changed 

 little. 



Information on hunting seasons and 

 other federal waterfowl regulations as 

 they applied to Illinois from 1929 

 through 1944 are given in table 1. 

 Even for seasons of the same length, 

 there were various opening and closing 

 dates. A 30-day open season extended 

 through November in 2 years, from 

 October 21 through November 19 in 

 another year. A season of 45 days 



1 



