FEDERAL LAW FOR THE PROTECTION OF MIGRATORY BIRDS. 
[37 Stat., 847.] 
[Extract from an act making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture for the 
fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and fourteen.] 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, All wild geese, wild swans, brant, 
wild ducks, snipe, plover, woodcock, rail, wild pigeons, and all other migratory 
game and insectivorous birds which ill their northern and southern migrations 
pass through or do not remain permanently the entire year within the borders 
of any State or Territory, shall hereafter be deemed to be within the custody 
and protection of the Government of the United States, and shall not be de¬ 
stroyed or taken contrary to regulations hereinafter provided therefor. 
The Department of Agriculture is hereby authorized and directed to adopt 
suitable regulations to give effect to the previous paragraph by prescribing and 
fixing closed seasons, having due regard to the zones of temperature, breeding 
habits, and times and line of migratory flight, thereby enabling the department 
to select and designate suitable districts for different portions of the country, 
and it shall be unlawful to shoot or by any device kill or seize and capture 
migratory birds within the protection of this law during said closed seasons, 
and any person who shall violate any of the provisions or regulations of this 
law for the protection of migratory birds shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and 
shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than ninety days, 
or both, in the discretion of the court. 
The Department of Agriculture, after the preparation, of said regulations, 
shall cause the same to be made public, and shall allow a period of three 
months in which said regulations may be examined and considered before final 
adoption, permitting, when deemed proper, public hearings thereon, and after 
final adoption shall cause the same to be engrossed and submitted to the Presi¬ 
dent of the United States for approval: Provided, however, That nothing 
herein contained shall be deemed to affect or interfere with the local laws of 
the States and Territories for the protection of nonmigratory game or other 
birds resident and breeding within their borders, nor to prevent the States and 
Territories from enacting laws and regulations to promote and render efficient 
the regulations of the Department of Agriculture provided under this statute. 
There is hereby appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not other¬ 
wise appropriated, for the purpose of carrying out these provisions, the sum *of 
$ 10 , 000 . 
Approved, March 4, 1913. 
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WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1913 
