O, 
REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 12 
breeding ground is being cultivated and as a result destroyed as breed- 
ing ground, 
To illustrate the difficulty of game law making, we will refer to the 
present law protecting valley quail. It has been apparent for some 
time that quail need additional protection but the best way to do this 
was not easy to determine. The bag limit could be reduced but a bag 
limit law is difficult to enforce and it requires considerable time for 
the hunters to become accustomed to a change in a limit law. There 
are always a great many unintentional, as well as willful violations on 
the part of hunters who think they are unfairly treated when a bag 
limit is reduced. 
It has been found that after the Christmas holidays there is much less 
interest in hunting than during the first few weeks of the open season 
and that when the season is open in January there are fewer birds killed 
than in December. It was finally determined that better protection 
would be given by opening the season one month later and to allow the 
open season to run until the end of January, thus leaving the season the 
same length as before, two and one-half months. The hunter thus has 
the same length of time to go after birds if he, so desires, the bag limit 
remains the same, but, on the other hand, the season opens after the 
birds are much larger, better developed and more able to take care of 
themselves and, best of all, they are protected by a law that can be 
easily enforced. 
Deer. The spike buck law that was ereated by the legislature of 
1915 has proved one of the best protective laws that has ever been 
adopted. With the opening of the 1918 season there should be a large 
number of big‘deer taken. The protection of spike bucks has eliminated 
to a remarkable degree the almost universal complaint of a few years 
ago that the country was filled with barren does. If there are any 
barren does, it is on account of the fact that there is a searcity of bucks. 
Rather than have a law that would allow the killing of dces, we should 
have a law that would prevent the killing of tco many bucks. This has 
been accomplished by the spike buck law. The spike buek answers all 
the purposes of the breeding male and there will be few, if any, barren 
does. Not only does the law better protect deer, but it also prevents 
the killing of other hunters by those, who, under the stress of excite- 
ment, shoot and look afterwards. It requires the hunter to look a little 
longer before he shoots and to ascertain what may be his target. As a 
result he will not carry through life the unfortunate regret that he 
killed a fellow sportsman. Another feature of this law is that it 
requires a person who kills a deer to retain the head and hide of the 
animal killed for a limited time in order to prove, if necessary, the 
