"8 CHRONOLOGY AND INDEX. 



Gallinse, commonly known as wild turkeys, grouse, prairie chickens, pheasants, 

 partridges, and quail. (Forest and Stream, XXVI, p. 84, Feb. 25, 1886.) 



In 18S7 the Boone and Crockett Club in its constitution defined 

 big game as follows : 



Under the heading of American large game are included the following animals: 

 Black and brown bear, grizzly bear, polar bear, buffalo (bison), mountain sheep, 

 woodland caribou, barren-ground caribou, cougar, muskox, white goat, elk (wapiti), 

 wolf (not coyote), prong-horned antelope, moose, Virginia deer, mule deer, and 

 Columbian black- tailed deer. (Art. IV.) 



In 1898 the list was modified by omitting the wolf. 



In 1900 the Biological Survey, utilizing these definitions, limited 

 the term, so far as applied to North American species, to four well- 

 marked groups of mammals and four of birds, namely: 1, ruminants 

 and peccaries (Ungulata); 2, bears and raccoons (Carnivora); 3, rab- 

 bits and squirrels (Rodentia); 4, opossums (Marsupialia) ; 5, swans, 

 geese, brant, and ducks (Anatidae) ; 6, rails, coots, mudhens, and 

 gallinules (Rallidae) ; 7, shorebirds, including plover, woodcock, 

 sandpipers, and curlews (Limicolse) ; 8, wild turkeys, grouse, pheas- 

 ants, partridges, and quail (Gallina?). (Biol. Survey, Bull. No. 14, 

 p. 11, 1900.) 



The extent to which definitions have been incorporated in statutory 

 law shows even greater variations. In the English laws game is 

 defined as "hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or moor game, 

 black game, and bustards" (Game Act, 1831, sec. 2), while the term 

 ground game is applied to hares and rabbits (Ground Game Act, 1880, 

 sec. 8). Game proper thus includes only the Gallinae and the Otididae 

 (bustards). Deer, waterfowl, and shore birds are not included, and 

 protection of shore birds and wild fowl is provided under the Wild 

 Birds' Protection Act of 1880. 



In Bouvier's Law Dictionary game is defined as "Birds and beasts 

 of a wild nature obtained by fowling and hunting," and in the Code 

 of Mississippi as "All kinds of animals and birds found in the state of 

 nature commonly so-called." Game birds are defined in the law of 

 Michigan, of 1899 as "Any birds protected by this act," and a law of 

 Maine enacted the same year declares the term "shall be construed to 

 mean the ruffed grouse or partridge, all species of the pheasant, wood- 

 cock, snipe, plover, and rail, and all ducks enumerated in this act. 

 The term game animals shall be construed to mean moose, caribou, 

 and deer." (Acts, 1899, ch. 42, sec. 50.) 



Since 1886 the definition of game birds recommended by the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union has been incorporated in the laws of a num- 

 ber of States, so that at present there is general uniformity in limiting 

 the term to four natural groups. In some States, however, the list is 

 modified by the addition of a few species. California adds the glossy 

 ibis; Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the District of Colum- 

 bia, the reedbird and blackbird; a few States, the robin; and a 

 number of States in the South and West, the dove. 



