324 APPENDIX III. 



(a) STATE LAWS. 



1. All wild birds are the property of the State, hence : 



2. Killing birds is a privilege, not a right. 



3. State ownership of birds carries with it the right to impose 

 restrictions, hence : 



4. Birds may be captured, possessed, transported, bought, or 

 sold only under such conditions as the State prescribes. 



5. Land-owners have no more right to kill birds out of sea- 

 son than other persons, unless the law specifically grants this 

 privilege. 



(b) FEDERAL LAW. 



6. Birds are protected by the Federal law only when shipped 

 from or into a State which protects them by a local law. 



7. Birds killed or shipped contrary to law in any State cannot 

 lawfully be transported to other States. 



8. Birds brought into a State become subject to its laws in 

 the same manner and to the same extent as birds produced in 

 that State. 



9. Packages of birds shipped from one State to another must 

 be marked so as to show the name of the shipper and the nature 

 of the contents. 



10. Foreign birds can be imported into the United States only 

 under permit from the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 and birds declared injurious by the Secretary of Agriculture can- 

 not be imported into the United States or shipped from one 

 State to another. 



Simple as all these propositions may seem, they have been the 

 cause of much discussion. Most of them, however, have been 

 passed upon by the higher courts and are no longer open to 

 question. The right of the crown to all wild game was estab- 

 lished in England years ago, and the State ownership of game 

 now clearly stated in the laws of Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, 

 Minnesota, Texas, and Wisconsin is an inheritance from the 

 English common law. The Supreme Court of the United States 

 has upheld this claim as well as the right of the State to prohibit 

 killing game for sale (125 U. S., 465) .or export (Geer vs. 

 Connecticut, 161 U. S., 519). 



Possession of birds out of season was long regarded merely 



