508 Ittinors NaturAL History SURVEY BULLETIN 
in 10 representative counties in Illinois, 
he and Yeager calculated that 29,431 fur- 
takers had operated in the state during 
the 1938-39 season, table 1; also table 4 
Vol. 22, Arta 
The second change provided that each 
fur-taker, whether or not he held a license, 
report his catch monthly during Novem- 
ber, December, January and February on 
Table 1.—Data on licensed, unlicensed and total fur-takers in Illinois. 
Se == 
CALCULATED Per CEnr oF 
NuMBER OF Nimiannuor CALCULATED LicENSED 
SEASON LICENSED Lin rroRNoeD Torat NuMBER Fur-Takers 
Fur-TAKERS Boel Aone oF Fur-TAKERS REPORTING ON 
MonrTHiy Forms 
1929-30 sees 13-90 20, 867 34,778 iS 
1930-31" Seen Wey 11363 28 , 938 10 
1934-35 2 save 6,654 9,981 16,635 13 
1935=36./asse es 6,480 97720 16,200 14 
1936537, aces 9,815 14,723 24, 538 11 
1931-33 sone 12, 560+ 18,840 31,400 3 
1938-39 agora 12,8107 16,621} 294500 18 
1939-40 25.he see 16,6157 10,406f 27,0212 ii 
Average: eer 115303 14,815 26,118 
*Data for the 1931-32, 1932-33 and 1933-34 seasons were not available to the writer. 
+These figures were calculated from fur-takers’ reports. 
The average number of licenses per licensed fur-taker was 
about 1.2, 1.2 and 1.1 in 1937-38, 1938-39 and 1939-40, respectively. Before the 1937-38 season, each fur-taker 
bought not more than one license. 
These figures are estimated on the basis of data from the oral survey by Brown. 
of Brown & Yeager report. “The number 
of licenses, as calculated from fur-takers’ 
reports, was 12,810 for the season; about 
1.27 times as many fur-takers had oper- 
ated without as with licenses, exceeding 
the earlier ratio estimates for previous 
years by 0.27. 
The oral survey indicated that, dur- 
ing the 1939-40 season, 27,021 fur-takers | 
had operated when, monthly reports 
seemed to show, 16,615 fur-takers had 
held licenses. The number of licensed 
fur-takers exceeded the number of those 
unlicensed, and the ratio of unlicensed to 
licensed fur-takers was 0.63 to 1.00. 
Six changes in the game code, the first 
five made in 1937 and the sixth in 1939, 
so altered trapping conditions as to make 
the ratios of unlicensed to licensed trap- 
pers for the 1938-39 and 1939-40 seasons 
much too conservative to apply to the 
seasons preceding them. 
The first change, in force by the begin- 
ning of the 1937-38 trapping season, pro- 
vided that each person taking fur-bearing 
animals, by any method whatsoever, on 
land on which he did not reside, must 
purchase a fur-taker’s license (Illinois 
State Department of Conservation 1935, 
1937). 
a form, fig. 1, furnished by the State De- 
partment of Conservation. 
The third change provided that each 
applicant for a license, at the time of mak- 
ing his application, report on an annual 
form, fig. 3, supplied by the State Depart- 
ment of Conservation, the number, or 
quantity, and species of fur-bearing ani- 
mals taken by him the next preceding 
year. 
The fourth change provided that each 
fur-taker trapping on land on which he 
did not reside must purchase a license for 
each 25 traps, or fraction of that number, 
and that each fur-taker operating on the 
farm land on which he resided must pur- 
chase a license for each 25 traps, or frac- 
tion of that number, in excess of the first 
25 traps to which residence on the land 
entitled him. 
The fifth change provided that each 
licensed fur-taker identify his traps by 
means of numbered tags obtained from 
the State Department of Conservation. 
This change assisted game wardens in dis- 
tinguishing legal from illegal trapping and 
forced the purchase of licenses by some of 
the trappers who had previously been able 
to evade the law. 
The 1937 code changes were effective in 
