GAME PROTECTION IN INDIA 273 



wise is a matter of the greatest simplicity, since there would 

 be no difficulty in drawing up such lists." 



Similarly in section 3 it would have been preferable had 

 the Act definitely laid down with the authority of the 

 Supreme Government behind it that the breeding seasons for 

 all animals and birds should be a close time and have made 

 Local Governments responsible that the breeding seasons 

 for each species were definitely ascertained in their several 

 jurisdictions and notified in their Gazettes. Not only 

 would this have been more satisfactory in the interests of 

 the preservation of all game animals, but it would have been 

 a valuable aid to an extension of our knowledge of the life 

 histories of many of the rarer animals and birds, since in 

 order to render possible the working of the Act it would have 

 been necessary to undertake such investigations throughout 

 the country. Also it would have afforded certain protection 

 to animals and birds other than " game " ones which run 

 the chance of being neglected under present conditions. 



The extension of this close or breeding season to a longer 

 period for specified reasons could have then been safely 

 left in the hands of the Local Authority. From the zoo- 

 logical and scientific point of view the Act of 1912 fails in 

 not having officially and authoritatively recognized the 

 breeding season in the interests of the fauna as a whole as a 

 close time, power being given to the Local Government to 

 proscribe within a certain defined area and for a certain 

 definite period any species which was becoming noxious to 

 the community. 



Further, it would have been better had the Act (sec. 3) 

 distinctly prohibited the killing of immature animals and 

 birds, empowering Local Governments to notify exceptions 

 in the case of dangerous carnivora, etc., when and only 

 when considered necessary. If the Act is really intended, 

 as we have no doubt that it is, to ensure the preservation of 

 the fauna as a whole throughout the country certain 

 definite prohibitory clauses laid down in the Act with the 

 Authority of the Governor-General in Council behind them 

 would surely be more likely to achieve the object arrived at 

 than by placing the onus of enacting such clauses on the 

 respective Local Administrations. 



In sub-sections 3 (b) and (c) which concern themselves 

 with the sale of animals and birds or parts of them killed 

 in the close season, we should have liked to see skins and 



