November, ig44 



Bellrose: Duck Populations and Kill 



331 



the difficulty of law enforcement that are 

 apt to arise when a single state lies in 

 two or more zones. 



More Game Birds in America, after 

 objecting to drastic year-to-year changes 

 in waterfowl regulations, proposed in 

 1936 to standardize these regulations 

 and to divide the nation into three 

 definitely prescribed hunting zones 

 (Anonymous 1936). The criterion for 

 placing states in the various prescribed 

 zones (as well as for establishing the 

 opening and closing dates of a 60-day 

 season for each zone) was temperature 

 records reported by the U. S. Weather 

 Bureau over a period of about 46 years. 

 This foundation proposed a season from 

 October 15 through December 13 for the 

 northern zone; October 22 through De- 

 cember 20 for the central zone; and 

 November 2 through December 31 for 

 the southern zone. 



Fig. 2 shows the zoning of the United 

 States as proposed by More Game 

 Birds in America and average dates on 

 which the mean daily temperature falls 



below 32 degrees F. The report of this 

 organization (Anonymous 1936) con- 

 tains the following: "It . . . . is 

 reasonable to state that the bulk of 

 our wild ducks and geese migrate with 

 the annual sweep of Old Boreas from 

 the north to the south. And it is 

 equally reasonable to assume that open 

 seasons, based on the average freezing 

 or ' freeze-up' dates in various sections 

 of the country, provide a far sounder 

 basis for fixing open seasons than arbi- 

 trary dates set by human decision and 

 subject to political or other pressure." 

 Recent federal regulations have ar- 

 ranged the states, with minor excep- 

 tions, into zones similar to those shown 

 in fig. 2. In the 1943 regulations, Iowa, 

 Ohio and Pennsylvania were in the 

 northern zone instead of the central, as 

 in fig. 2; and California, Kentucky, New 

 Jersey and Oklahoma in the central 

 instead of the southern zone. In 1942, 

 Iowa and Pennsylvania had been in 

 the central zone and, in 1940, Ohio also 

 had been in the central zone. Other 



*Shooting hours: 



a. One-half hour before sunrise to sunset. 



b. Sunrise to sunset, e.xcept that in 1934 on baited grounds closing time was 3 P.M., Central Standard Time. 



c. 7 A.M. to 4 P.M., Central Standard Time. 



d. Sunrise to 4 P.M. 



e. Sunrise to sunset. 



tlllinois law specified bag limit 15, possession 60. 



{Thirty days within the period October 6-January 13 (Illinois chose Saturdays and Sundays). Baiting was 

 allowed only if a permit had been obtained from the U. S. Bureau of Biological Survey. 



**Baiting prohibited but law so interpreted as to allow feeding on parts of premises not shot over. 



ttBag limit 10 plus 5 mallards, widgeons or pintails; possession limit 20 plus 10 mallards, widgeons or pintails. 



