GAME AS A NATIONAL RESOURCE. 27 



this direction, mainly by regulating seasons and methods of hunting, 

 limiting the amount of game which may be killed in a specified time, 

 prohibiting export and sale, and providing means for administra- 

 tion chiefly through a system of licenses. 



The first law regulating seasons and prohibiting export was passed 

 nearly 250 years ago, in 1677, in Connecticut. Other forms of pro- 

 tection have been more recent. The first laws placing limits on the 

 amount of game to be killed were enacted less than half a century 

 ago, in 1878, in Iowa. Laws prohibiting the sale of all protected 

 game are of as recent date as 1887 in Wisconsin, and were passed 10 

 years later in Kansas. Michigan, Xew Mexico, and Texas. 



In regulating seasons certain principles are generally considered 

 fundamentally important, but their application has been strongly 

 resisted. Among these are the prohibition of summer shooting — that 

 is. during the breeding season; the prohibition of spring shooting, 

 while birds are on their way* to the breeding grounds; and the pro- 

 tection of females of big game, particularly in the case of deer. 



SUMMER SHOOTING. 



Summer shooting has been most destru tive in the case of wood- 

 cock, squirrels, and shorebirds. Owing to the fact that the woodcock 

 breeds early, that the young are well developed before autumn, and 

 that the birds migrate early, the custom developed years ago of 

 opening the season in midsummer, in some States as early as July 4. 

 This practice prevailed for many years and only recently has July 

 and August woodcock shooting been abolished. 



Squirrel shooting in summer has not yet been entirely stopped. 

 Of the 38 States which protected squirrels in 1920, 6 permitted sum- 

 mer shooting as follows : Arkansas, beginning May 15 ; Missouri and 

 Tennessee, June 1 ; Illinois and Kentucky, July 1 : and Indiana, 

 August 1. 



Spring and summer shorebird shooting persisted along the At- 

 lantic coast in some States until the passage of the migratory-bird 

 law in 1913. The birds were shot not only on the northward flight 

 in May but also as soon as they reappeared early in July. Under 

 the present Federal regulations the season on such shorebirds as may 

 be hunted opens as follows : 



August 16 in the coast States of Xew England, and in Xew York, 

 Xew Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia ; 



September 1 in the District of Columbia, North Carolina. South 

 Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Xew Mexico, Ari- 

 zona, California, and Alaska; 



September 16 in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, 

 Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan. Wisconsin. Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, 

 Minnesota, Xorth Dakota. South Dakota, Xebraska, Kansas, Colo- 

 rado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Xevada. and that portion of Oregon 

 and Washington lying east of the summit of the Cascade Mountains ; 



