28 BULLETIN" 1049, U. S. DEPAETMEXT OF AGEICULTUEE, 



October 1 in Utah and in that portion of Oreg^on and Washington 

 lying west of the summit of the Cascade Mountains ; 



November 1 in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisi- 

 ana. 



SPEIXG SHOOTING. 



Notwithstanding the well-recognized fact that birds should not 

 be killed during the mating season or while on their way to their 

 breeding grounds, it has proved one of the most difficult problems 

 of game protection to put an end to the practice of shooting water- 

 fowl and other migratory birds in sirring. The first law prohibiting 

 spring shooting was passed T5 years ago, in 1846, in Rhode Island, 

 but for half a century the movement made little progress. During 

 the last 20 years a number of the Xorthern States have prohibited 

 waterfowl shooting in spring, but the difficulty of eradicating the 

 practice in some sections immediately became evident with the 

 enactment of the migratory-bird law in 1913. Xo regulation was 

 so strenuously opposed as that prohibiting shooting in spring, par- 

 ticularly in some of the States of the Middle West. The beneficial 

 effects of diminishing if not entirely eliminating spring slaughter 

 became apparent almost immediately and no feature of Federal 

 protection of migratory birds has done more to increase the number 

 of waterfowl than that prohibiting shooting when birds are on their 

 northward migration. 



PROTECTING FEMALES OF BIG GAME. 



The importance of preserving the breeding stock by protecting 

 females has long been recognized. With those species of big game 

 in which the sex is easily distinguished, as in deer, elk, and moose, 

 this can readily be accomplished by restricting the hunting to males. 

 California, as early as 1883, protected does, and Colorado a few years 

 later adopted the same policy. In the case of moose, it has been 

 the practice to protect cows ever since Maine inaugurated it in 1891. 

 The beneficial results of such a policy have since been demonstrated 

 in some of the Provinces of Canada. At present moose hunting 

 practically everywhere is restricted to bulls. 



In the case of deer, legislation for the j)rotection of does has made 

 gradual though rather slow progress, and in some States it has met 

 with strenuous objection. In 1920 about half the States which per- 

 mitted deer hunting protected does at all seasons. More specifically, 

 33 States enjoyed deer hunting, and of these, 17 and the Territory of 

 Alaska protected does (see map, fig. 1) : and, as already stated (p. 16) . 

 this number was increased in 1921 to 23 States, exclusive of Alaska. 



Doe laws are important not only in consenting the breeding stock 

 of deer but also in protecting human beings, since the simple expe- 

 dient of requiring a hunter to ascertain before shooting whether the 



