REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS V 



be confiscated, and that the same license number under different names 

 meant confiscation of the birds. It was also made an offense for any 

 agent of any transportation company to accept for shipment to market 

 any duck- that were not so tagged with the name and license number. 

 This, in our opinion, is the only way in which the market hunter can 

 be held in check and compelled to comply with the law. Otherwise, it 

 is practically impossible to obtain sufficient evidence to warrant a con- 

 viction. In the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, which are the 

 «_ r reat duck-hunting sections of tin- State, all sorts of schemes and 

 evasion- are resorted to. Tin- hunters are on the ground and know 

 every inch of it; they have numerous assistants who ship ducks under 

 their individual names, thereby permitting Bome families t<> -hip as 

 many as two hundred and fifty ducks in a Bingle day. With a license 

 Bcbeme in operation, each hunter would have to pay the license fee, 

 which would add considerable to our resources and would <_ r ive us com- 

 plete control of the market hunters by putting a deck on tie- violations 

 at their source, and relieve this Board of the expense of so many depu- 

 ties in the cities, where most of the game is handled. It would prevent 

 the so-called sportsmen who shoot for profit and pleasure from shooting 

 and disposing of their game unless regularly Licensed. Even with a bag 



limit of twenty-five, which 18 three times the amount that any sports- 

 man and his family ran COU8Ume, there would remain a large number 

 of birds to be disposed of. If a market hunter can ship twentv-five 

 birds in one day, or, if possible, take out two licenses under different 

 names and shoot fifty birds, he would still lie under control. Commis- 

 sion houses, hotels, or restaurants which handle ducks for food, have 

 none of the pleasure of the chase; in other words, handle only those 

 which have already been killed. The bag-limit provisions would not 

 apply to them except in this respect: that not more than the legal limit 

 should l>e received from anyone person during one calendar day. We 

 estimated that such a license bill would prove a source of considerable 

 revenue, which would enable us to add more men to our force, better 

 patrol the State, besides reducing, probably fifty per cent, the number 

 of birds killed; it would make a more uniform supply for the market; 

 there would not be the waste that there is under the present system, 

 which responsible dealers tell us amounts to fully one third of the 

 number received, as the market is often glutted and the birds spoiled 

 before they can be sold. For these reasons, we believe that so long as 

 ducks are sold in the markets, such a measure would more nearly meet 

 the approval of our Legislature and the requirements of our people, and 

 be supported by them more than any other measure relating to the 

 protection of ducks that has yet been presented. 



In addition to the foregoing, we would recommend that an annual 

 license fee of $1 be imposed on every individual who shoots protected 



