598 
FOREST AND STREAM 
October, 1918 
THE MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY ACT 
|REGULATIONS T PASSED through long and patient efforts of prominent sportsmen, 
LED BY GEORGE SHIRAS, 3rd, OF THE GOVERNING BOARD OF FOREST AND STREAM 
W HEREAS, Section three of the 
Act of Congress approved July 
third, nineteen hundred and eight¬ 
een, entitled “An Act to give effect to the 
convention between the United States and 
Great Britain for the protection of migra¬ 
tory birds concluded at Washington, 
August sixteenth, nineteen hundred and 
sixteen, and for other purposes” (Public 
No. 186—65th Congress), provides as fol¬ 
lows : 
“That subject to the provisions and in 
order to carry out the purposes of the 
convention, the Secretary of Agriculture 
is authorized and directed, from time to 
time, having due regard to the zones of 
temperature and to the distribution, abun¬ 
dance, economic value, breeding habits, 
and times and lines of migratory flight of 
such birds, to determine when, to what ex¬ 
tent, if at all, and by what means, it is 
compatible with the terms of the conven¬ 
tion to allow hunting, taking, capture, kill¬ 
ing, sale, purchase, shipment, transporta¬ 
tion, carriage, or export of any such 
bird, or any part, nest, or egg thereof, 
and to adopt suitable regulations permit¬ 
ting and governing the same, in accord¬ 
ance with such determinations, which 
regulations shall become affective when 
approved by the President.” 
AND, WHEREAS, The Secretary of 
Agriculture, pursuant to said section and 
having due regard to the zones of temper¬ 
ature and to the distribution, abundance, 
economic value, breeding habits, and times 
and lines of migratory flight of migratory 
birds included in the terms of the conven¬ 
tion between the United States and Great 
Britain for the' protection of migratory 
birds concluded August sixteenth, nine¬ 
teen hundred and sixteen, has determined 
when, to what extent, and by what means 
it is compatible with the terms of said 
convention to allow hunting, taking, cap¬ 
ture, killing, possession, sale, purchase, 
shipment, transportation, carriage, and ex¬ 
port of such birds and parts thereof and 
their nests and eggs, and in accordance 
with such determinations has adopted and 
submitted to me for approval regulations, 
which the Secretary of Agriculture has 
determined to be suitable regulations, per¬ 
mitting and governing hunting, taking, 
capture, killing, possession, sale, purchase, 
shipment, transportation, carriage, and ex¬ 
port of said birds and parts thereof and 
their nests and eggs, which said regula¬ 
tions are as follows: 
Regulations, Migratory Bird Treaty Act. 
Regulation i.—Definitions of Migratory 
Birds. Migratory birds, included in the 
terms of the convention between the Unit¬ 
ed States and Great Britain for the pro¬ 
tection of migratory birds, concluded Au¬ 
gust 16, 1916, are as follows: 
I. Migratory game birds: 
(a) Anatidce, or waterfowl, including 
brant, wild ducks, geese, and swans. 
A PROCLAMATION BY THE PRESIDENT 
( b ) Gruidce, or cranes, including little 
brown, sandhill, and whooping cranes. 
(c) Rallida, or rails, including coots, 
gallinules, and sora and other rails. 
(d) Limicolce, or shorebirds, including 
avocets, curlew, dowitchers, godwits, knots, 
oyster catchers, phalaropes, plovers, sand¬ 
pipers, snipe, stilts, surf birds, turnstones, 
willet, woodcock, and yellowlegs. 
( e ) Columbidce, or pigeons, including 
doves and wild pigeons. 
2. Migratory insectivorous birds: Bobo¬ 
links, catbirds, chickadees, cuckoos, flick¬ 
ers, flycatchers, grosbeaks, hummingbirds, 
kinglets, martins, meadowlarks, night- 
hawks or bull-bats, nuthatches, orioles, 
robins, shrikes, swallows, swifts, tanagers, 
titmice, thrushes, vireos, warblers, wax- 
wings, whip-poor-wills, woodpeckers, and 
wrens, and all other perching birds which 
feed entirely or chiefly on insects. 
3. Other migratory nongame birds: 
Auks, auklets, bitterns, fulmars, gannets, 
grebes, guillemots, gulls, herons, jaegers, 
loons, murres, petrels, puffins, shearwaters, 
and terns. 
Regulation 2.-—Definitions of Terms. 
For the purposes of these regulations the 
following terms shall be construed, re¬ 
spectively, to mean— 
Secretary—The Secretary of Agricul¬ 
ture of the United States. 
Person—The plural or the singular, as 
the case demands, including individuals, 
associations, partnerships, and corpora¬ 
tions, unless the context otherwise re¬ 
quires. 
Take—The pursuit, hunting, capture, or 
killing of migratory birds in the manner 
and by the means specifically permitted. 
Open season—The time during which 
migratory birds may be taken. 
Transport—Shipping, transporting, car¬ 
rying, exporting, receiving or delivery for 
V 
v-r 
shipment, transportation, carriage or ex¬ 
port. 
Regulation 3.—Means by Which Migra¬ 
tory Game Birds May Be Taken: 
The migratory game birds specified in 
Regulation 4 hereof may be taken during 
the open season with a gun only, not 
larger than number ten gauge, fired from 
the shoulder, except as specifically permit¬ 
ted by Regulations 7, 8, 9 and 10 hereof; 
they may be taken during the open season 
from the land and water, from a blind or 
floating device (other than an airplane, 
powerboat, sailboat, or any boat under 
sail), with the aid of a dog, and the use 
of decoys. 
Regulation 4.—Open Seasons on and 
Possession of Certain Migratory Game 
Birds: 
For the purpose of this regulation, each 
period of time herein prescribed as an open 
season shall be construed to include the 
first and last days thereof. 
Waterfowl (except wood duck, eider 
ducks, and swans), rails, coot, gallinules, 
black-bellied and golden plovers, greater 
and lesser yellowlegs, woodcock. Wilson 
snipe or jacksnipe, and mourning and 
white-winged doves may be taken each day 
from half an hour before sunrise to sun¬ 
set during the open seasons prescribed 
therefor in this regulation, by the means 
and in the numbers permitted by Regula- 
tons 3 and 5 hereof, respectively, and when 
so taken, each species may be possessed 
any day during the respective open seasons 
herein prescribed therefor and for an ad¬ 
ditional period of ten days next succeeding 
said open season. 
Waterfowl (except wood duck, eider 
ducks, and swans), coot, gallinules, and 
Wilson snipe or jacksnipe—The open sea¬ 
sons for waterfowl (except wood duck, 
eider ducks, and swans), coot, gallinules, 
and Wilson snipe or jacksnipe shall be as 
follows: 
In Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
Massachusetts, New York (except Long 
Island), Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Vir¬ 
ginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Wis¬ 
consin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Mis¬ 
souri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ne¬ 
braska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Mon¬ 
tana, Idaho, Nevada, and that portion of 
Oregon and Washington lying east of the 
summit of the Cascade Mountains, the 
open season shall be from September 16 
to December 31. 
In Rhode Island, Connecticut, Utah, and 
that portion of Oregon and Washington 
lying west of the summit of the Cascade 
Mountains the open season shall be from 
October 1 to January 15. 
In that portion of New York known as 
Long Island, and in New Jersey, Delaware. 
Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona 
and California, the open season shall be 
from October 16 to January 31. 
In Maryland, the District of Columbi; 
Illustrations copyripht Risen Art Publication, Inc. 
