282 THE IMPOETANCE OF BIKD LIFE 



the game-laws, the more game-birds are produced. 

 Never were truer words spoken. By one simple 

 and brief code the Federal Government has not 

 only succeeded in protecting nine tenths of the 

 birds in the United States, but has done so in such 

 a manner that those birds are actually increasing 

 in numbers. Ten years ago it was virtually an 

 unknown event for black ducks to breed on the 

 marshes and pond-banks of Long Island, New 

 Jersey, or Massachusetts. Now they may be seen 

 there every spring and summer in scores. Wood- 

 ducks, once nearly exterminated, are returning to 

 their old haunts ; gulls and terns crowd our coastal 

 shore-line; and curlews are no longer an uncom- 

 mon sight in the early autumn. For these birds 

 the simplest law has indeed proved a boon. 



Very different, on the other hand, has been the 

 influence of a heterogeneous complication of state 

 laws upon non-migratory upland game-birds. 

 Until recent years each State formulated a code 

 to fit its own needs, which in reality merely fitted 

 the needs of a few sportsmen. The making of 

 game-laws became a pastime, a mania, with state 

 legislatures. So complicated did the laws grow 

 that the citizens of a State could gather no more 

 than an inkling of what they meant. 



It might be unlawful, for instance, to kiU quail 

 Ln the northern part of one county whereas any 

 number could be shot in the southern part. A 

 similar law might pertain to all of a dozen coun- 



