March 22, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
367 
Game Legislation of the 62 d Congress 
By T. S. 
T he third session of the Sixty-second Con¬ 
gress will long be remembered as marking 
one of the most important milestones in 
the history of Federal game protection. The 
enactment of the migratory bird bill is the third 
great step which began with the creation of 
national refuges in the Yellowstone Park act of 
1872, and was extended to interstate commerce 
in game in the Lacey act in 1900. 
Notwithstanding the fact that attention dur¬ 
ing the last session was confined chiefly to ap¬ 
propriation bills, more was accomplished than 
at any previous .session since the passage of the 
Lacey act. The nation-wide campaign in behalf 
of Federal protection of migratory birds, so ably 
conducted by the American Game Protective As¬ 
sociation and other friends of conservation, re¬ 
sulted in the passage of the McLean bill in the 
Senate on Jan. 22, and later in having the measure 
added as an amendment to the agricultural ap¬ 
propriation bill and approved on the morning of 
March 4, the final day of the session. More 
than eight years have elapsed since the original 
bill was introduced in Congress by Hon. George 
Shiras, 3d, on March 5, 1904, and a year has 
passed since the hearing on March 6, 1912, held 
by the House and Senate Committee on the 
Anthony, Weeks and McLean bills. These meas¬ 
ures were all restricted to game birds, but when 
the two latter were reported from committee, 
they were amended to include insectivorous birds 
and were made practically identical. A com¬ 
parison of the text of the law with the Shiras 
bill shows that very little change has been made 
in the original measure, except to extend pro¬ 
tection to insectivorous birds and provide a 
penalty for violation of the act or regulations, 
and an appropriation of $10,000 for carrying out 
its provisions. 
The four brief paragraphs in the agricultural 
appropriation bill represent the result of six bills 
(S. 2367, S. 6478, S. 6497, H. R. 36, H. R. 4428, 
H. Res. 815), three reports of committees (S. 
Rept. 675, H. Rept. 680 and 1424), memorials 
from eight or ten State Legislatures, thousands 
of letters and press notices, and unremitting 
efforts on the part of individuals and organiza¬ 
tions in all parts of the country. The agricul¬ 
tural appropriation bill, which carried the Mc¬ 
Lean bill through the House, also contained other 
important game protective provisions. The ap¬ 
propriation for the Biological Survey contains an 
item of $5,000 and authorization for inclosing 
a thousand acres of public land in Jackson Hole, 
Wyoming, to complete the winter refuge for elk; 
an item of $16,000 (increase of $4,000) for the 
enforcement of the Lacey act; an item of $21,000 
(increase of $4,000) for the maintenance of the 
National Bison Range and Bird Reservations. 
The appropriation for the Forest Service also 
PALMER 
contains a special item of $2,000 for the construc¬ 
tion of headquarters on the Wichita Game Pre¬ 
serve in Oklahoma. 
BILLS INTRODUCED IN THE THIRD SESSION. 
During the last session only about 1,800 bills 
were introduced, of which 1,280 were introduced 
in the House and about 530 in the Senate. Of 
these three in the Senate and four in the Plouse 
require mention in this connection. 
S. 8i6q —A bill for the protection and in¬ 
crease of State game preserves. 
S. 8403—A bill to establish the Rocky Moun¬ 
tain National Park in Colorado. 
S. Res. 428—That the President be requested 
to propose to the Governments of other North 
American countries the negotiation of a conven¬ 
tion for the mutual protection of migratory birds. 
H. R. 28142—A bill for the protection and 
increase of State game preserves. 
H. R. 28747—A bill reserving from the pub¬ 
lic lands of Idaho a tract of land [in the Saw¬ 
tooth Mountains]. 
H. Res. 815—Providing for the immediate 
consideration of S. 6497 to protect migratory 
game and insectivorous birds. 
None of these measures were reported from 
committee. S. 8169 and H. R. 28142 were simply 
the general refuge bills reintroduced in amended 
form. The introduction of the Senate resolu¬ 
tion providing for an international convention 
on migratory birds marks another important step 
in the history of bird protection. One of the 
last bills passed was the Sundry Civil Appro¬ 
priation Bill (H. R. 25069), which was vetoed in 
the closing hours of the session, and will prob¬ 
ably be repassed at the special session this spring. 
This bill carried anrong other items the regular 
appropriations of $3,000 for maintenance of buf¬ 
falo in the Yellowstone National Park, and 
$15,000 for game protection in Alaska. 
SUMMARY. 
The total number of bills and resolutions 
introduced in the Sixty-second Congress was 
nearly 40,000, or about 5,000 less than in the 
previous Congress. A detailed list of the game 
hills introduced in the first and second sessions 
has already been published (Forest and Stream, 
Dec. 21, 1912, p. 800). The actual gain in legis¬ 
lation in this Congress comprised the fur seal 
act, carrying into effect the treaty between Great 
Britain, Japan, Russia and the United States, 
putting an end to pelagic sealing, and establish¬ 
ing a five-year close season on the Pribilof 
Islands; the migratory bird bill; a national game 
preserve on the Wind Cave National Park in 
South Dakota; a winter refuge for elk in Jack- 
son Hole, Wyoming; and increased appropria¬ 
tions for maintenance of reservations and en¬ 
forcement of the law regulating interstate com¬ 
merce in game. All of these provisions, except 
KING’S PRIDE ON A PHEASANT. 
