32 GAME COMMISSIONS AND WARDENS. 



wardens in Montana and ex officio assistant game wardens in Wyom- 

 ing. Members of incorporated game societies in New Jersey have 

 power to institute prosecutions and to make arrests without warrant. 

 In Vermont town grand jurors are required to prosecute violators. 

 In Virginia commanders of the oyster police boats are made game 

 wardens, as already explained (see p. 26), and are required to report 

 all prosecutions to the board of fisheries. By act of Congress officials 

 of the Forest Service are required to aid in the enforcement of game 

 laws, and forest rangers of the Federal Government are by State law 

 made ex* officio game wardens in Washington, have powers of deputy 

 game wardens in Colorado, and may be appointed special assistant 

 game wardens in Wyoming. 



The Alaska game law requires all marshals, deputy marshals, col- 

 lectors of customs and their deputies, and officers of revenue cutters 

 to enforce the law. 



In several States police and peace officers are declared to be ex officio 

 game wardens and are invested with the same powers as game wardens. 

 In Pennsylvania the State constabulary are required to enforce the 

 game laws. Wardens in several States have much more extensive 

 police powers in performing their official duties than sheriffs, con- 

 stables, and peace officers are allowed to exercise in connection with 

 their own functions. Thus in Montana these local officers can not 

 seize without warrant as wardens can, and in New York they have not 

 the right of search without warrant conferred on protectors. A pro- 

 vision investing local officers with the powers of game wardens is 

 therefore calculated to increase the game warden force without addi- 

 tional expense to the State. In some States sheriffs and other officers 

 are allowed the same fees that are prescribed for the wardens and 

 share in the division of fines. But despite the fact that the powers 

 and duties of wardens are bestowed upon these regularly constituted 

 peace and executive officers with great particularity and detail, 

 scarcely any assistance is rendered the game departments by them. 

 So conspicuous was the failure of a provision of this character in Mis- 

 souri, under the act of 1905 creating a game department, that the State 

 warden in his first report makes the following statement: 



One provision of the game and fish law constitutes sheriffs, marshals, constables, 

 and all peace officers ex officio game and fish wardens, and charges them with the 

 same duties, and under like penalties for violation of duty, as are by law imposed 

 upon the State game warden and his commissioned deputies. 



It was very much hoped that this provision of the law would prove a very great 

 aid and furnish valuable allies to the game warden's corps of deputies in bringing 

 about the law's enforcement, especially in remote places difficult of access to regu- 

 larly commissioned deputies. With this hope and end in view this office, at the 

 expense of considerable labor and time, procured, by correspondence with all the 

 county clerks, the names and post-office addresses of all the constables and justices 

 of the peace in the State, aggregating in all some 4,000 such officers, to all of whom 

 we mailed copies of the game law, and addressed them personal letters calling atten- 



