STATE GAME AND FISH WARDEN. 



15 



of Montana owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. M. E. Kent, a 

 prospector in that section, who has jealously guarded this 

 herd for the past sixteen years, when the bunch numbered 

 but four. 



Last year three defendants on Boulder River above Big 

 Timber were convicted of killing a moose and paid heavy 

 fines. Then in October, 1910, two residents were con- 

 victed and fined for the same oflfense, on the Upper Madison 

 River. In Maine, where moose hunting is the favorite sport, 

 the State Game Warden reports an increase for the past 

 twenty years. I believe that with the rigid protection now 

 afiforded these animals in Montana, an open season may be 

 declared at some distant date without endangering the species 

 in this state. 



CURLEWS AND SNIPES NOT PROTECTED. 

 There are two varieties of game birds not protected by 

 our laws and yet they are found in Montana in considerable 

 numbers. They are the curlew and snipe. Curlews and 

 snipes are found in nearly all parts of the state. Neither 

 of the two are mentioned in the sections of our statutes 

 referring to game. I believe it is through an oversight of 

 the original framers of the law and would respectfully suggest 

 that the law be amended to procure protection for both, and 

 also suggest giving the scarce swan perpetual protection, and 

 including curlews and snipes in the same season as wild ducks 

 and geese from September ist to January ist. 



DUCKS. 

 There is a protest from some hunters against maintaining 

 a limit on the number of ducks to be killed in a day. To this- 

 I would answer that while many of the ducks found in 

 Montana are migratory and not protected to the same extent 

 south and west of us, yet there is a movement on foot among 

 the game wardens of these states to procure legislation fixing 

 a bag limit on these aquatic fowl and to remove the limit 

 in Montana at this time would operate to prevent similar 

 protection in these wide open states. I believe that before 

 long there will be a statute similar to the Montana law in 

 most of the* states. Otherwise there is danger of the species 

 becoming practically extinct. Many hunters in the middle 

 states remember the flight of wild pigeons which occurred 



