THE GAME BREEDER 



87 



the United States Supreme Court, when 

 the migratory bird law was considered, 

 emphasized the fact that a criminal en- 

 actment should not be published in a 

 bulletin or circular. We insist that a 

 criminal law when found should be sim- 

 ple and easily understood and that it 

 should be uniform throughout the coun- 

 try. It should not consist of a volumin- 

 ous lot of fanciful restrictions, relating 

 to various species of birds, which are 

 different at various times and places, 

 even if such rules of conduct are made 

 to please the prospective criminals in dif- 

 ferent localities after "hearings" or con- 

 ferences with the promise that the law 

 will be changed, from time to time, to 

 please newcomers and kickers. Criminal 

 laws should not be changed often; they 

 should be permanent. 



Our first impression after reading the 

 proposed regulations is that the Biologi- 

 cal Survey has gone plumb daffy on the 

 subject of game laws; that it is unmind- 

 ful of the fact that many similar rules 

 of conduct prescribed by the States have 

 not produced any game for the people 

 to eat, although millions of dollars are 

 expended annually in the effort to exe- 

 cute the state enactments. 



Let the law be made short, simple, 

 uniform and universal, easy to under- 

 stand when found; let it prohibit the 

 taking of song and insectivorous mi- 

 grants at all times and the shooting of 

 the migratory food birds during the 

 nesting season; let it occupy a few lines 

 in the statute book with other criminal 

 enactments and wi will say, Amen. We 

 are opposed to making the United States 

 Government appear ridiculous. We are 

 opposed to the setting of numerous 

 legal snares for the unwary who should 

 at least have a fair chance of knowing 

 what is criminal and especially where it 

 is criminal. 



CRIMINAL ABSURDITIES AND 

 EXCEPTIONS. 



Our readers will observe in the pro- 

 posed migratory bird law regulations that 

 in some localities certain wild food birds 

 may be taken and eaten and that in 

 other- localities the taking and eating is 



made illegal. -Some plover and tattlers,,, 

 for example, may be taken between Au- 

 gust 15 and December 1.. "Exception.; 

 In Utah the closed season shall continue 

 until the open season in 1918." What 

 date in 1918 is this? 



Having pondered well, we fail to un- 

 derstand why it should be a United 

 States crime to take a black breasted 

 plover or a greater or lesser yellow 

 legged tattler on one side of the Utah 

 boundary line and not on the other side 

 of the line. The shooter near the line 

 surely must look out if the government 

 fully polices the boundary and the offi- 

 cers know where the line runs. Pos- 

 sibly the survey has learned that still 

 there are some Mormons in Utah and 

 had this fact in mind when Utah was 

 considered. 



Other "exceptions" occur at frequent 

 intervals. Vermont gets left on sora 

 rails, "excluding mud hens, etc.," until 

 the open season of 1918. Wherein Ver- 

 mont has offended we do not know. Pos- 

 sibly the survey does not approve of an 

 excellent State law, recently enacted,, 

 which permits the people to breed and 

 sell all species of game. 



A closed season on reed-birds or rice- 

 birds is provided throughout the year 

 except in some favored States — New 

 Jersey, South Carolina and others, and. 

 the District of Columbia. A proposed, 

 crime here and not there ! There and 

 not here! Do your own guessing; and 

 remember, if the appropriation can be 

 increased as contemplated so as to place 

 an army of politicians on the various, 

 lines, Uncle Sam surely will get you if 

 you don't watch out. The bobolink is 

 classified in regulation No. 1, subdivi- 

 sion (f), as an insectivorous migrant, 

 but after he moults and changes his 

 name, in some States he becomes a game 

 bird. There is an open season in seven 

 States and the District of Columbia, Sep- 

 tember 1 to October 31. A good smart 

 game policeman, using this bird as a de-. 

 coy should make a good bag of criminals- 

 by working the boundary lines between 

 the open and closed States. 



On page 4 we find a closed season for 

 woodcock, December 1 to September 30^. 



