600 GAME BIBVS OF CALIFOMNIA 



made to extend from July 1 until .January 1, six months. Since 

 that time there seems to have been constant, dissatisfaction on the 

 part of hunters in the different sections -of the .state^ with, resulting 

 readjustment of open and closed seasons. There have been. no less 

 than eleven different legislative enactments on the subject duritig the 

 last thirty-five years. The changes in the law. from time < to time 

 are indicated in the accompanying chart (fig. 93)., 



The present (1915) law, which conforms to the season under the 

 Federal Migratory Bird Law passed in 1913, will be seen to be the 

 most conservative of: any yet enacted in California. Two opposing 

 conditions make the regulation of the dove season here extremely 

 difficult, namely, the late nesting, and the rather early migration in 

 the northern part of the state. Birds in the region siirrounding 

 the head of the Sacramento Valley are nesting almost up to the time 

 that they begin to leave for the south, so that if the hunters of this 

 section are to be allowed to shoot the birds at all, the open season 

 will have to include the latter part of the nesting period and be 

 rather short at best. Opening the season on September 1 will not 

 prevent shooting while some nesting is still in progress, yet it will 

 allow the great majority of the young birds to be fully fledged before 

 hunters take the field. A second chart (fig. 94) shows that the hunting 

 season in California (1915) is a fair average as compared with the 21 

 other states that permit dove shooting. 



The number of dove hunters in California is simply enormous, 

 and the wonder is that the birds have not been exterminated long 

 ago. Mr. A. D. Ferguson, in charge of the Fresno District of the 

 California Fish and Game Commission, says {in Calif. Fish and Game 

 Comm., 1914, p. 42) : 



In the season of 1913, it is estimated that in Fresno County 4,000 gunners 

 ■were out for doves on the opening day '. . and . . . few if any of these people 

 were disappointed in the day's bag. After the opening date doves could not be 

 so readily secured. Apparently the surviving birds took refuge in the Sierra 

 hills and in isolated sections of the sparsely inhabited west side of the valley. 

 The spring of 1914, however, disclosed the presence of doves in their old breeding 

 grounds in most satisfactory numbers. 



Excessive shooting does undoubtedly have its effect, for in Los 

 Angeles County Mr. George Willett states that the birds have been 

 greatly reduced, and the same report comes from Solano County. 

 Agricultural development in general may be said to favor the increase 

 of doves, and thus to some degree compensates for the reduction 

 caused by hunting. Waste grain and other seeds furnish considerable 

 food, while the inevitable growths of weeds in neglected corners and 

 fallow fields give further sustenance. The birds are notably adapt- 

 able in the choice of nesting sites, so that the planting of orchards. 



