Federdl Protection of Migratory Birds. 9 
bird treaty act of July 3,1918, will be effectively attacked on 
the grounds of constitutionality, because the Constitution of 
the United States provides that u all treaties made, or which 
shall be made, under the authority of the United States shall 
be the supreme law of the land j and the judges in every 
State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution 
or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.” 
EFFECT OF THE TREATY ACT ON STATE LAWS. 
The migratory-bird treaty -act renders inoperative all State 
and local laws that are inconsistent with it, but it authorizes 
the several States to make and enforce laws not inconsistent 
with the terms of the act or of the treaty, which shall give 
further protection to migratory birds and their nests and 
eggs; but the open seasons may not be extended by the States 
beyond the dates fixed by the Federal regulations. 
The Federal Government in effect has assumed a limited 
jurisdiction over migratory birds in order to insure their 
adequate protection. The States may not permit anything 
to be clone which is prohibited by the Federal Government, 
but they may enact and enforce laws or take other measures 
conforming to the provisions of the Federal regulations or 
not in conflict with the operation of the Federal law. 
It seems quite clear that no State or subdivision of a State 
can permit migratory birds to be hunted, killed, possessed, 
sold, or transported at times, by means, or in numbers made 
unlawful by the Federal act, but confusion arises from the 
existence, at the time of the enactment of the Federal statute, 
of closed seasons under State laws which overlapped either 
wholly or in part the open seasons prescribed by the Federal 
regulations. If it is clear that a person is not authorized to 
hunt migratory birds during that portion of a State open 
season which is a part of a Federal closed season, it must be 
equally clear that a person may not hunt during that por¬ 
tion of the Federal open season which is included in the 
State closed season, as hunting during that time would be 
in violation of a law which the State is authorized to make 
and enforce. 
To ascertain the period when migratory birds may be 
hunted without violating either Federal or State laws, there 
