BIRD-PROTECTION BY GOVERNMENTS 189 



has formed the basis for nearly all bird legislation 

 since that time. This law, with some modifications, 

 has been adopted in forty States. The provisions 

 of the law may be briefly summarized as follows : 



1. A definition of what constitutes game-birds. 



2. A list of injurious birds. 



3. Protection of all other birds, then* nests and eggs. 



4. Permission to collect birds for scientific pur- 

 poses. 



5. Statement of the fine for violation of the law. 



Changes still needed in some States are a reduc- 

 tion of the number of birds exempted from protec- 

 tion so as to exclude only the injurious birds, espe- 

 cially among the hawks and owls, and the removal 

 of all song-birds from the game list. More than half 

 of the States have laws prohibiting Sunday shoot- 

 ing, thus making this a closed season for all birds. 



Bird Day. Bird Day is now officially recognized 

 in the following nine States: California, Connecti- 

 cut, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, 

 Virginia, and Wisconsin. 



Game laws. For game-birds a separate set of laws 

 is enacted which prescribes regulations regarding: 

 (1) the open season when game may be shot; (2) the 

 shipment of game outside of the State; (3) the sale 

 of game; (4) the bag-limit; (5) the procuring of li- 

 censes for hunting and shipping game. 



Formerly spring and summer shooting were per- 

 mitted, but now nearly all States forbid shooting 



