LEGISLATION CONCERNING MAMMALS 175 



under direction of game protective officers) ; forbidding the use of 

 smoke or chemicals to drive fur-bearers from their dens, or drowning 

 them in their burrows; regulating the size and kinds of traps that 

 may be used; forbidding the use of artificial lights in hunting them; 

 prohibiting the destruction of the homes or runways of beaver or musk- 

 rat or the nests or lairs of any of the protected animals, or the set- 

 ting of traps in or close to homes of certain animals ; sometimes specify- 

 ing the minimum distance, in other cases prescribing the distance traps 

 must be placed within hollow logs or burrows, and frequency with 

 which the traps must be visited, usually every 24 or 36 hours ; for- 

 bidding the use of scented bait, or the flesh of game birds or mammals 

 as bait, or explosives, spears, baited hooks, set guns, pits, deadfalls, 

 ferrets (or firearms for certain specified animals) ; prohibiting the tak- 

 ing of muskrats during floods, when they are driven from their homes 

 by the water, or of certain other animals when there is snow on the 

 ground, or cutting down trees containing dens of animals (permitted 

 for raccoons in some states) ; limiting the number of traps allowed to 

 one trapper, and making it unlawful for anyone else to disturb, in- 

 jure or remove his traps or remove any animal therefrom ; requiring the 

 owner to have his name and address on his traps, usually stamped on a 

 metal tag or on the trap itself ; prescribing bag limits on certain ani- 

 mals included among fur-bearers (bears, raccoons, etc.) ; regulating 

 the shipment of furs and fur-bearing animals ; provisions against shoot- 

 ing foxes when they are being chased by dogs; requiring trappers to 

 procure licenses, and requiring them to make annual reports of their 

 operations. Anti-steel trap propaganda and legislation have been dis- 

 cussed in the chapter on the Fur Trade. 



Fur farming is now well established in nearly all the states, in most 

 of which, as well as in Canadian provinces, there are regulatory laws. 

 There are also federal laws concerning importation of wild animals, 

 imposing a tariff tax therefor and regulating interstate commerce in 

 animals, dead or alive. 



We have compiled from the annual summary of the fur laws for the 

 season of 1927-1928 a list of fur animals for which close seasons have 

 been provided in different states and provinces. 9 It is impossible to show 

 all the provisions exactly in the form of a simple table, as there are 

 many exceptions to the general rules in some states. The inclusion of 

 the bear complicates matters, as it is included among game animals 



9 Ashbrook, Earnshaw and Grimes, Fur laws for the season 1927-1928, Farmers' 

 Bull., No. 1552, 1928; for 1928-1929, see Bull. No. 1575; for 1929-1930, No. 1616. 



