I 
8 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 
\ 
TERMS OF THE TREATY. 
1 he treaty provides for continuous protection for migra- 
tory insectivorous birds and certain other migratory non¬ 
game birds; special protection for 5 years for wood ducks 
and eider ducks; a 10-year closed season for band-tailed 
pigeons, little brown, sandhill, and whooping cranes, swans, 
v curlews, willet, upland plover, and all shorebirds (except the 
black-bellied and golden plovers, Wilson snipe or jacksnipe, 
woodcock, and the greater and lesser yellow-legs); and con¬ 
fines hunting to seasonable periods of not exceeding three 
and one-half months for the shorebirds not given absolute 
protection, and other migratory game birds. 
/ 
THE MIGRATORY-BIRD TREATY ACT. 
The treaty provides no machinery to enforce its provisions, 
but the High Contracting Powers agreed to enact necessary 
legislation to insure its execution. In pursuance of this 
agreement, the Government of the Dominion of Canada 
passed the migratory-birds 5 convention act, which became a 
law on August 29, 1917; and the Congress of the United 
States passed the migratory-bird treaty act, approved by 
the President on July 3, 1918. The enactment of this legis¬ 
lation rounded out the most comprehensive and adequate 
scheme for the protection of birds ever put into effect. 
Under the migratory-bird treaty act, it is unlawful to 
hunt, capture, kill, possess, sell, purchase, ship, or transport 
at any time or by any means any migratory bird included in 
the terms of the treaty except as permitted by regulations 
which the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized and di¬ 
rected to adopt, and which become effective when approved 
by the President. The act provides police and other powers 
necessary for its effective enforcement. 
CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE TREATY ACT. 
If it is conceded, as it must be, that valuable game and 
insectivorous birds which migrate between the United States 
and Canada are a proper subject for the negotiation of a 
treaty, there seems to be little likelihood that the migratory- 
/ 
