4 
Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 
interests have prevented the States from putting these meas¬ 
ures into effect. The protection of birds during the mating 
season and while on their way to and from their breeding 
grounds has been of prime importance, but until recent years 
few States have given much attention to this important 
matter. In fact, any protection by a closed season on hunt¬ 
ing is in a large number of States comparatively recent, 
owing to the generally accepted but erroneous belief that 
migratory birds need no protection and can be hunted when¬ 
ever present from the time they make their first appearance 
in spring and fall. 
The growth of sentiment for the conservation of so valu¬ 
able a resource by preventing destruction through spring 
shooting of game birds, and by enacting other protective 
measures, has been notable in the last half century. The 
number of States affording waterfowl no legal protection 
has come to be in inverse ratio to the number prohibiting 
all spring shooting, while between these extremes are all 
gradations, including partial protection of all species and 
the permission of more or less spring shooting. The various 
phases are readily compared by decades in the accompanying 
tabulation covering the 10-year periods since 1870: 
. , 1*1 p I i - * ’ 
State protection of waterfowl at the end of 10-year periods from 1870 
to 1910 and in 1912 and 1918 , as reflected by various phases of legis¬ 
lation of the 48 States or of legislation for the territory now covered 
by them . 
Phases of legislation. 
Number of States in the years— 
• 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 
1910 
1912 
1918 
Prohibiting all spring shooting. 
1 
2 
5 
9 
14 
18 
31 
Prohibiting all spring shooting but protecting 
only a few species. 
5 
3 
1 
1 
Prohibiting spring shooting of a few but pro¬ 
tecting all species . 
1 
1 
2 
1 
Permitting spring shooting but protecting only 
a few species. 
2 
1 
1 
1 
Permitting spring shooting but protecting a 
few or all species locally. 
1 
1 
1 
Permitting spring shooting but protecting all 
species. 
6 
17 
23 
26 
24 
25 
13 
Affording no legal protection whatever. 
36 
24 
17 
10 
6 
3 
3 
