LEGISLATION CONCERNING MAMMALS 169 



and Massachusetts and New Hampshire had warden systems in co- 

 lonial days. After colonial times comparatively few states enacted game 

 laws up to 1850, but in 1860 thirty-one states had such laws of one 

 kind or another. In 1880 all states and territories of the Union had 

 game laws (sometimes only county laws). From 1901 to 1910, there 

 were enacted 1324 game laws, not including numerous bounty and ap- 

 propriation bills. In 1902 Virginia provided for the payment for dam- 

 ages to crops caused by deer, a rule now in force in some other 

 states. 



Laws designed for the protection of the bison were in force in Idaho 

 in 1864, Wyoming in 1871, Colorado in 1877, North and South Da- 

 kota in 1883, New Mexico in 1880, and Nebraska in 1875, but there 

 was little enforcement against the big business of hide-hunting and the 

 laws did not protect the bison from practical extermination. Kansas 

 and Texas, regions of great abundance, afforded no protection. A 

 somewhat parallel case is that of the passenger pigeon. In 1857 an 

 Ohio legislative committee declared that ' 'the passenger pigeon needs no 

 protection ... no ordinary destruction can lessen them or be missed 

 from the myraids that are yearly produced," language very similar to 

 that used by the opponents of bison protection. New York in 1862, 

 Michigan in 1869, and Pennsylvania in 1878 prohibited hunting at 

 their nesting places or roosts, and Pennsylvania established a close sea- 

 son in 1870, but market-hunting was not forbidden, and this splendid 

 and once abundant bird is now extinct, to the lasting disgrace of mod- 

 ern civilization. 



The various states of the Union and Canadian provinces all have 

 close and open seasons on various kinds of game mammals, and these 

 vary from state to state and from province to province, in their length 

 of time and time of year, as well as in the species to which they ap- 

 ply, though some of the latter differences are due to the presence of 

 species in certain areas which are absent from other districts. The laws 

 also differ in the bag limits, and these limits are subject to very fre- 

 quent changes in many jurisdictions. In nearly all states the sale of 

 game is now prohibited or much restricted and there are rigid provi- 

 sions concerning the interstate transportation of game. Some states 

 have special provisions that deer may be killed at any season when 

 they are damaging crops, while others provide for compensation of 

 the owner for such damage. 



In addition to close seasons of a few months each year, sometimes 



