THE HALLOCK CODE. 33 



The diversity of season here shown emphasizes the importance of 

 securing greater uniformity of action on the part of neighboring States. 

 Twenty- five years ago the International Association for the Protection 

 of Game published a comparative table of game laws, clearly illustrat- 

 ing the diversity which existed in 1874. The need of uniformity in 

 seasons has been generally recognized in recent years, but little has 

 actually been accomplished toward bringing about the desired result. 



A STEP TOWARD UNIFORMITY— THE HALLOCK CODE. 



Of the various schemes proposed for uniform game laws, that sug- 

 gested by Mr. Charles Hallock in 1897 deserves especial attention. 

 In an address before the National Game, Bird, and Fish Protective 

 Association ^ he advocated a code of cooperative legislation, in accord- 

 ance with which the United States was to be divided into three ' con- 

 cessions ' ^ in each of which the laws were to be as uniform as possible, 

 the open season j identical, and protection was to be accorded to 

 insectivorous birds, but withheld from a few species considered 

 injurious. 



The feature of special interest in this connection is the simple 

 manner in which the States were grouped together. The three con- 

 cessions were named Northern, Southern, and Pacific, and as origi- 

 nally proposed were limited as follows : All of the region west of the 

 crest of the Rocky Mountains was included in the Pacific, while all that 

 east of this range was divided at latitude 36° 30' into a Northern and 

 a Southern concession. This division, however, had the disadvantage 

 of cutting through Colorado and New Mexico, thus giving each a 

 double set of laws. Moreover, the Pacific concession extended from 

 Puget Sound to the Mexican boundary and embraced wide extremes 

 of climate. Tlie scheme has therefore been slightlj^ modified, for 

 present purj)oses, by extending the Northern concession over the 

 whole of Colorado and allowing tlie Southern to include not only all 

 New Mexico, but also Arizona (see PL VII). This places all the region 

 south of latitude 36° 30' (except part of southern California) in one 

 division. All the States north of this line with these exceptions 

 belong to the Northern or Southern concessions, while California, 

 Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington form the Pacific. For 

 a simple division, this seems to meet all requirements fairly well; and 

 while it ma}^ not be practicable to secure identical laws in all the 

 States in each group, a strong effort should at least be made to have 

 the close seasons correspond as nearly as possible. 



1 Western Field and Stream, Vol. I, pp. 232-234, 1897. 



'-•'We call it 'concession,' because it is based on compromise and reciprocity."— 

 Hallock. 



