212 PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



National Industrial Recovery Act, the Farm Loan Act, or 

 the Agricultural Adjustment Act, matters which vitally 

 affect the fundamental rights of the whole people. Then 

 tomorrow comes a case of a man charged with shooting a 

 duck forty minutes after sunset in violation of the Migra- 

 tory Bird Treaty Act. Is it to be wondered that federal 

 judges object to the latter type of case? 



The offense is petty in itself, the court docket crowded 

 with important cases waiting to be heard, and it is natural 

 that the federal judges should object to their courts trying 

 cases which in their opinion are " better suited to a police 

 court ". Naturally, too, they show their disapproval in the 

 only way they can either by refusing to allow indictments 

 to be filed, or, should the case be based upon indictment by 

 grand jury, by fixing such extremely low fines as to make a 

 joke out of the whole affair. 



Two examples taken from the files of the Survey during 

 recent years illustrate instances of the latter type. Five per- 

 sons in North Carolina were charged with shooting at ducks 

 during the closed season in violation of the Migratory Bird 

 Treaty Act. The arrest was made by state wardens acting 

 as United States deputies. Their prisoners admitted before 

 arrest that they had been hunting ducks, and indeed had 

 fired several shots which had been heard by the officer. 

 They also admitted that they had been hunting during the 

 closed season previously and had, during such time, actually 

 killed ducks. 



The accused demanded jury trial, which dragged on for 

 some time in the federal district court, but finally all of them 

 were found guilty by the jury. The judge fined each of 

 them one cent. The explanation for this ridiculously low 

 fine lies in the fact that during that same session the judge 

 had been faced with a whole series of similar misdemeanor 

 cases, some liquor, some narcotic and some game law vio- 

 lations. 



