10 
year 1907. Most species have decreased very rapidly. Now all the 
most useful owls are protected at all seasons, and it is lawful to take 
or kill only the barred owl, the great horned owl and the sharp-shinned 
hawk, Cooper’s hawk, goshawk, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered 
hawk and duck hawk. Town bounties on the other species can no 
longer be legally paid or collected. All eagles and the osprey or fish 
hawk are likewise protected at all times. 
In 1897 an act was passed providing a penalty of $10 for the offense 
of having in possession the body or feathers of any undomesticated 
bird then protected at all times by chapter 276 of the statutes of 
1886. This statute also prohibited the wearing of such feathers for 
dress or ornament. It was aimed at the milliners who provided the 
feathers and their patrons who wore them, and has largely broken 
up the traffic in the feathers of native birds that are protected at all 
seasons. In 1902 the traffic in native song birds for cage purposes 
had grown so destructive that a special penalty of $10 was provided 
for capturing or possessing any bird protected by law throughout the 
year. 
In the meantime, the shooting of small birds by foreigners about 
cities and near construction camps of laborers had become so serious 
an evil that a law was passed (chapter 317, Acts of 1905) requiring all 
unnaturalized foreign-born persons to pay a license fee of $15 for a 
license giving them the privilege of hunting. This law has checked 
somewhat the destruction of birds and game by Italians and other 
foreigners. 
GENERAL Birp Laws. 
One of the most important statutes for the general protection of 
birds and game was passed in 1899, making “‘the Lord’s Day” a close 
season, and imposing on the lawbreaker the penalties incurred by 
breaking the game laws in addition to those usually inflicted for in- 
fractions of the “Sunday laws.” This statute was revised in 1902, 
and in 1904 it was made still more effective and severe by providing 
a penalty of $10 to $20 in addition to usual fines for hunting or killing 
game in close season. 
The Legislature of 1907 passed a law requiring all non-resident 
hunters, except those who were members of shooting clubs already 
incorporated and established in the State, to pay a license of $10 for 
the privilege of hunting in the State. This is a good law with the 
exception of the exemption. 
Fines AND FORFEITURES. 
Beginning in 1818, with a fine of $1 or $2 for the killing of each 
bird in defiance of the law, penalties have been increased or decreased 
from year to year. The general tendency, however, has been to 
increase the fines. The maximum of $100 per bird has been reached 
in the case of the heath hen. The foreigner or non-resident who 
hunts without a license may be fined $50. The same fine may be 
required of any person who kills a wood duck or from any one who 
uses a live decoy for black ducks in Nantucket. In general, a fine 
of $20 is imposed for each game bird killed out of season, but $10 
only is required in the case of each shore bird, and the same amount 
in that of each other undomesticated bird or each nest or egg of such 
bird as is protected at all times. 
