OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR. 



491 



regulations adopted M' the Secretary of Agriculture to give effect 

 to the act. The administration of the act is coinmitteed to the Bureau 

 of Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture. 



The bureau referred to this office during the year 351 cases for 

 consideration, of which 296 were reported to the Department of Jus- 

 tice for action. The first case under the act was a libel filed in the 

 district of Maryland for the forfeiture and confiscation of two bar- 

 rels of rice birds shipped from Georgia to Baltimore. Decree was 

 entered forfeiting the birds and ordering their distribution among 

 charitable institutions in Baltimore. 



The question of the validity of the treaty and the act to carry it 

 into effect was raised early in the year in the Eastern District of 

 Arkansas, in the case of United States v. E. D. Thompson, 258 Fed. 

 257, and at the request of the Department of Justice this office 

 prepared a memorandum on the constitutional questions raised for 

 consideration of the court. The court sustained the treaty and 

 the act. While this case was pending the State of Missouri, by 

 its attorney general, filed a bill in the United States District 

 Court for the Western District of Missouri, seeking to enjoin the 

 United States game warden and his deputies from enforcing the act 

 of Congress in that State. The office furnished the United States 

 Attorney with a memorandum on the constitutional questions raised 

 and with other pertinent data. On July 2, 1919, the court dismissed 

 the bill for injunction and sustained the treaty and the act of Con- 

 gress. (Missouri v. Holland, 258 Fed. 479). The treaty and the act 

 Avere also sustained in United States r. Selkirk in the Southern Dis- 

 trict of Texas (258 Fed. 775). The validity of the treaty and the act 

 was also raised in the case of United States r. (ireen, in the Northern 

 District of Florida, and was argued on behalf of the United States 

 by one of the assistants in this office. The court sustained the treaty 

 and the act. There have been no adverse decisions. 



Of the cases reported to the Department of Justice for prosecution, 

 110 have resulted in convictions and the imposition of fines amount- 

 ing to $2,230. The fines imposed were as follows : 



Fines imposed under the migratory-hird treaty act. 



In addition, tw^o defendants w^ere confined one day in jail in the 

 Eastern District of Louisiana. 



THE LACEY ACT. 



[35 Stat, 1137.] 



Twenty-six cases were reported to the Department of Justice. At 

 tlic close "^of the preceding fiscal year 26 cases were pending, of which 

 13 were closed during the fi^cal year, 8 by convistions and the imposi- 

 tion of fines and the remainder by dismissal. 



