Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 



interests have prevented the States from putting these meas- 

 ures into effect. The protection of birds during the mating 

 season and while on their way to and from their breeding 

 grounds has been of prime importance, but until recent years 

 few States have given much attention to this important 

 matter. In fact, any protection by a closed season on hunt- 

 ing is in a large number of States comparatively recent, 

 owing to the generally accepted but erroneous belief that 

 migratory birds need no protection and can be hunted when- 

 ever present from the time they make their first appearance 

 in spring and fall. 



The growth of sentiment for the conservation of so valu- 

 able a resource by preventing destruction through spring 

 shooting of game birds, and by enacting other protective 

 measures, has been notable in the last half century. The 

 number of States affording waterfowl no legal protection 

 has come to be in inverse ratio to the number prohibiting 

 all spring shooting, while between these extremes are all 

 gradations, including partial protection of all species and 

 the permission of more or less spring shooting. The various 

 phases are readily compared by decades in the accompanying 

 tabulation covering the 10-year periods since 1870: 



State protection of waterfowl at the end of 10-year periods from 1870 

 to 1910 and in 1912 and 1918,'as reflected by various phases of legis- 

 lation of the 48 States or of legislation for the territory now covered 

 by them. 



