May 14, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
775 
Game Protection in New York. 
The following interesting matter is extracted 
from advance proofs of the annual report to the 
Hon. James S. Whipple, New York Forest, Fish 
and Game Commissioner, of Chief Game Pro¬ 
tector John B. Burnham, for the year 1909: 
- The statistical tables which follow show a sub¬ 
stantial increase in the number of cases prose¬ 
cuted. While in 1907 there were 797 actions 
brought, and in 1908 there were 1,054, during the 
fiscal year covered by the present report the num¬ 
ber has increased to 1,372, or a gain of about 30 
per cent, over 1908. 
A comparison with the statistics of previous 
years shows that the number of actions prose¬ 
cuted has increased very materially each year 
since you became commissioner. There has been 
an increase from 375 actions brought in 1904 to 
1,372 in 1909, or about 365 per cent, in five years. 
During this time the number of 
protectors has been increased 
from fifty to eighty-five. These 
results can only have been 
brought about by a systematic 
and businesslike administration. 
The personnel of the protectors 
has been improved by the weed¬ 
ing out of inefficient men, and a 
systematic organization has taken 
the place of a force which, while 
not wanting in good material, 
lacked in cohesion and the proper 
placing of individual responsi¬ 
bility. 
For the first time this year 
credit is given to the heads of 
the different divisions for the 
work accomplished in their 
blocks. The first work of the 
organization of the force was to 
assign to each protector a defi- 
nite territory, so that responsi¬ 
bility might be placed for viola¬ 
tions occurring in this territory, 
and the protector might also have 
a definite area to patrol. While 
held accountable for the enforce¬ 
ment of the law in his territory, 
and for the education of the public in the 
reasonableness of the game laws, the fact of 
the protector’s assignment to a particular sec¬ 
tion does not limit his activities to that territory. 
The protectors are encouraged to assist brother 
protectors in neighboring divisions, and to work 
with them where circumstances make co-opera¬ 
tion advisable or necessary, and in addition the 
protectors are frequently sent to distant parts of 
the State. Habitual law violators soon become 
acquainted with the habits of the local protector 
and devise clever systems of keeping tab on the 
protector’s movements. It is, therefore, often 
necessary to bring in from other sections men 
who are not known locally, in order to secure 
convictions of this class of violators. There are 
times during the year when as many as thirty 
protectors are assigned to special work in other 
protectors’ territory for periods of several weeks. 
In order to gain results, the visiting protector 
must have a thorough knowledge of local con¬ 
ditions and of the ends he is expected to accom¬ 
plish. These matters are planned by the assist¬ 
ant and division chiefs, and the details are 
worked out for weeks in advance. 
HUNTING LICENSES. 
In 1908, which was the first year of the new 
law, the hunting licenses were not distributed 
until June. One hundred and twenty thousand 
and ten dollars was received in payment for 
licenses sold up to Jan. 1, 1909. The 1909 
licenses were in the hands of the county clerks 
in time for distribution to their city and town 
clerks before the first of the year. The licenses 
were effectively distributed in 1908, and very few 
men who went afield hunting were not provided 
with licenses, despite the fact that licenses were 
only obtainable for six months of the calendar 
year. One reason why more licenses are not 
being sold this year is owing to the fact of the 
general posting of lands by farmers and game 
protective associations. Judging from the re¬ 
ports of protectors who have questioned hun¬ 
dreds of sportsmen for their licenses, almost the 
only hunters who have not taken out licenses 
are farmers who are privileged to hunt on their 
own farms without licenses. From many locali¬ 
ties which were formerly overrun by irrespon¬ 
sible gunners who destroyed insectivorous birds 
as well as game, word comes that few if any 
of this class were afield. Many of the country 
newspapers of the State print each month a list 
of persons in their localities who have taken out 
hunting licenses, and as the records are easily 
accessible in the city, town and county clerk’s 
offices, it is a simple matter to ascertain whether 
the law has been obeyed. 
At present New York State issues about one 
hunting license per seventy of population. On 
the basis of one hunter to five of population, 
this would indicate that about one in fourteen of 
the adult male population has taken out a hunt¬ 
ing license. In England and Wales one hunt¬ 
ing license is issued per ninety of population; 
in Scotland, one to in, and in Ireland, one to 
167. In the Western States of this country the 
number of licenses in proportion to the popula¬ 
tion is very much greater, but New York has too 
much of a city population to ever come into the 
same class with the essentially hunting States. 
As noted in my last report, there is a vast dis¬ 
crepancy between Hamilton county in the Adi- 
rondacks, where one license is issued per 36/10 
of population, and New York county, where the 
ratio is one to almost 1,000 of population. 
The following information relative to hunting 
licenses is taken from a circular issued by the 
department in 1908: 
“Hunting licenses are required for any kind 
of hunting with firearms, whether of protected 
or non-protected animals or birds. The law 
states that no one shall use a gun for hunting 
without first having procured a license. Licenses 
issued by any city, county or town clerk are 
good for any part of the State up to Dec. 31 of 
the year of issue. Farmers or their immediate 
families hunting on their own farms are not re¬ 
quired to take out licenses. 
“The charge for resident licenses is $1.10, and 
for non-resident and alien licenses $20.50. 
“Trapping. — Licenses are not 
required for trapping, provided 
the trapper does not carry fire¬ 
arms. 
“Minors.—There is no prohi¬ 
bition either in the forest, fish 
and game law or in the penal 
code, against granting a license 
to a minor; nor is there any 
prohibition against his hunting in 
a lawful manner. The prohibi¬ 
tion against minors carrying fire¬ 
arms refers solely to public places, 
and the legal definition of ‘public 
places’ does not include fields and 
streams. Minors may, therefore, 
be granted hunting licenses. 
“Aliens.—The penal code pro¬ 
hibits aliens from carrying fire¬ 
arms in public places at all times, 
but the hunting license law spe¬ 
cifically provides for the granting 
of licenses to aliens to hunt in a 
lawful manner. Hunting licenses 
may, therefore, be granted to 
aliens upon payment of the $20.50 
fee. When a man believed to be 
an alien applies for a resident 
hunting license, he should be 
made to show his naturalization papers, or pro¬ 
duce other proofs to show that he is entitled to 
a resident hunting license, and the clerk should 
refuse to issue a resident license if he is not 
thoroughly satisfied that the applicant is entitled 
to take out such a license. An alien who has 
taken out his first papers is not thereby entitled 
to take out a resident hunting license. He must 
have taken out his full naturalization papers be¬ 
fore he is entitled to a resident hunting license. 
Residence in the State does not entitle a for¬ 
eigner to take out a resident hunting license any 
more than it entitles him to vote. 
“Non-residents.—Citizens of the United States, 
in order to be eligible to take out resident 
licenses, must have resided at least one year in 
the State. The fact that an applicant owns 
property in this State, or that he has a summer 
residence in the State, does not entitle him to 
take out a resident hunting license if he has not 
the right of suffrage in the State. It is the duty 
of the clerk to satisfy himself before issuing a 
resident license that the applicant is a bona fide 
resident of the State. 
“Lost Licenses—When a hunting license has 
A GOOD SPECIMEN. 
