GAME-LAWS 283 



ties scattered throughout the State. Citizens, 

 once outside of their own county, could not tell 

 where or when they could shoot. Hundreds of 

 such confusing laws were passed in the ten years 

 foUowinf^ttf^iactment-of the Lacey Bill. Be- 

 tween 1901 and 1910, 1324 new state game-laws 

 were promulgated ; 316 of them in North Carolina 

 alone. 



There could be only one result arising from this 

 over-discriminate legislation. Game-birds were 

 destroyed. The legislative miscellany, though 

 designed to protect, reacted in the opposite direc- 

 tion. Quail in the southern part of the county 

 were killed off while there were none left to breed 

 in the northern part. 



Even under the more modern code, commonly 

 adopted and simplified as it is, many States con- 

 tinue to enact numerous confusing local laws. 

 Some of these perhaps are necessary; others are 

 highly detrimental to the best interests of the 

 game. Those which have to do with the establish- 

 ment of refuges, sanctuaries, and breeding-farms 

 are excellent, but those which leave a bird pro- 

 tected in half the State and unprotected in the 

 other merely serve to lower the vital statistics of 

 the species in question. 



New York makes an excellent example of this 

 short-sightedness. Quail were virtually exter- 

 minated throughout the main part of the State 

 before a long closed season was put in force. 



