APPENDIX. 
COUNCIL BILL NO. 3 
An Act to prevent the killing of birds in the Territory of New Mexico 
Be it enactedby the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of New 
Mexico: 
Section 1. That it shall be unlawful for any person or 
persons in this territory to wantonly shoot, snare or entrap, 
for the purpose of killing, or in any other manner to destroy, 
any song bird, or birds whose principal food consists of in¬ 
sects; comprising all the species and varieties of birds repre¬ 
sented by the several families [species]of blue-birds, including 
the western and mountain bine-birds; also road-runner, wood¬ 
peckers, night-hawks, humming birds, phoebe-birds, fly¬ 
catchers, pewees, pinon jays and other varieties of the jay 
family; blackbirds, meadow-larks, orioles, Mexican ojoiotles, 
Arizona gold finches, swallows, yellow-throats, thrashers, 
wrens, mocking-birds, Rocky mountain creepers, nut hatches, 
robins, chickadees, gnat-catchers, thrushes, Oregon or 
“Denny pheasant,and all other species and varieties of 
birds, regarded as harmless in their habits, and wdiose flesh 
is unfit for food; except such as are destructive to orchards, 
gardens and fields, or crops of fruit, berries or grain. Pro¬ 
vided ', that nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit 
the killing of any such birds for scientific purposes. 
Section 2. Any person or persons violating the provisions 
of this act shall be punished by any court before whom com¬ 
plaint may be made, by a fine not to exceed fifty dollars and 
not less than ten dollars, or by imprisonment in the county 
jail, not to exceed thirty days and not less than ten days. 
Each bird killed, injured or in any way disposed of shall con¬ 
stitute a separate offense under the provisions of this act. 
Section 3. This act shall take effect from and after its 
passage. 
Approved March 14, A. D. 1901. 
Note— I was not able to obtain a copy of the above bill before its passage. It 
represents a move in the right direction, but it would be hard to show that the flesh of 
many of the birds mentioned is “unfit for food,” and it would take an expert to deter¬ 
mine whether the several kinds were at all •‘distinctive to orchards, gardens and lields 
etc.” The mocking bird, for instance, is mentioned: but Mr. F. E. Lester writes me 
from Mesilla Park that this bird every summer eats the apples on his trees. Last sum¬ 
mer one tree, the best on his place, bore probably two hundred good apples, but all 
were eaten by the birds before becoming ripe. In reality we do not yet know enough 
of the habits of New Mexico birds to say in every case which is harmful and which 
useful, though in most instances we can doubtless form a reasonable opinion 
T. D. A. C. 
