244 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the State Ornithologist of Massachusetts was a member. 

 Hearings on the question of adopting the proposed regulations 

 were held at convenient points by Dr. Palmer with members 

 of the advisory committee, and finally on Oct. 1, 1913, the 

 regulations, with some minor changes, were approved and 

 signed by the President and now have the effect of law. They 

 do not affect local, non-migratory birds of any State. In 

 view of the fact that many of the shore birds and some of the 

 waterfowl have diminished to a point where they are approach- 

 ing extinction, special protection was extended to certain 

 species throughout the year, and to others at least three- 

 quarters of the year. Spring shooting was forbidden every- 

 where. Arrangements were made to protect migratory game 

 birds at all times everywhere between sunset and sunrise ; to 

 protect waterfowl at all times along at least three of the great 

 navigable rivers of the country ; to make the shooting season 

 approximately equal in length in different parts of the coun- 

 try, and to limit it to a maximum of three to three and 

 one-half months. Most migratory insectivorous birds are 

 protected uniformly at all times in all States. Protection for 

 five years is provided in some States for birds like the wood 

 duck, which already have such a close season under the laws 

 of those States, and a similar close season has been declared 

 on all the smaller shore birds throughout the United States. 

 More than fifty different open seasons for migratory birds 

 had been provided formerly under State statutes which were 

 still in force in 1912. This had anything but a beneficial 

 effect on the abundance of game. Now under the federal law 

 the country has been divided into two zones as nearly equal 

 in size as possible, one to include the States in which many 

 migratory game birds breed or would breed if given spring 

 protection, and the other the States in which comparatively 

 few breed, but in which many winter. In no case does the 

 zone boundary cross a State line. In Massachusetts the fed- 

 eral laws make little change except to prohibit night shooting, 

 but in many other States, particularly in the south, where 

 many of our birds winter, much additional protection is af- 

 forded to the birds and game. 



Thus the work in the New England States to secure uni- 



