8 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 



TERMS OF THE TREATY. 



The treaty provides for continuous protection for migra- 

 tory insectivorous birds and certain other migratory non- 

 game birds; special protection for 5 years for wood ducks 

 and eider ducks; a 10-year closed season for band-tailed 

 pigeons, little brown, sandhill, and whooping cranes, swans, 

 curlews, willet, upland plover, and all other shorebirds (ex- 

 cept black-bellied and golden plovers, Wilson snipe or jack- 

 snipe, woodcock, and the greater and lesser yellow-legs) ; and 

 confines hunting to seasonable periods of not exceeding three 

 and one-half months for the shorebirds not given absolute 

 protection, and other migratory game birds. 



THE MIGRATORY-BIRD TREATY ACT. 



The treaty provides no machinery to enforce its provisions, 

 but the High Contracting Powers agreed to enact necessary 

 legislation to insure its execution. In pursuance of this 

 agreement, the Government of the Dominion of Canada 

 passed the migratory-birds' convention act, which became a 

 law on August 29, 1917; and the Congress of the United 

 States passed the migratory-bird treaty act, approved by 

 the President on July 3, 1918. The enactment of this legis- 

 lation rounded out the most comprehensive and adequate 

 scheme for the protection of birds ever put into effect. 



Under the migratory-bird treaty act, it is unlawful to 

 hunt, capture, kill, possess, sell, purchase, ship, or transport 

 at any time or by any means any migratory bird included in 

 the terms of the treaty except as permitted by regulations 

 which the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized and di- 

 rected to adopt, and which become effective when approved 

 by the President. The act provides police and other powers 

 necessary for its effective enforcement. 



CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE TREATY ACT. 



If it is conceded, as it must be, that valuable game and 

 insectivorous birds which migrate between the United States 

 and Canada are a proper subject for the negotiation of a 

 treaty, there seems to be little likelihood that the migratory- 



