266 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



at least twelve of them had enacted game-laws, 

 insufficient though they were. These were the 

 forerunners of the later State laws. 



The early game-laws, though entirely in- 

 adequate for the true protection of game, were 

 steps in the right direction. Although at the time 

 of her inception as a nation the United States was 

 the great exponent of the rights of man, she recog- 

 nized from the beginning that game should belong 

 to the state and not the individual. By incorpo- 

 rating her colonial laws as State laws she at once 

 diverged from the line which Italy later was to 

 follow — ^^and ultimately saved a fraction of her 

 game. 



By the opening year of the nineteenth century 

 fourteen States had made some attempt at game 

 legislation; in 1850 nineteen had game-laws; in 

 1860, thirty-one ; and by 1870, forty-one. But the 

 laws were ineffective ; their enforcement was lax, 

 and little real protection was afforded to game. 

 This applied to birds in particular; they were 

 plentiful and little protection was considered 

 necessary. 



Reforms, however, were not far off. Begin- 

 ning with 1872, the old system of long open sea- 

 sons and "kill as many birds as you can" began to 

 give way. In that year Maryland opened the new 

 era by providing rest days for wild-fowl, an ex- 

 ample followed by New Jersey in 1879, when she 

 also prohibited the killing of water-fowl from 



