Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 258, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1915 — PROTECTION FOR OUP GAME BIRDS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PROTECTION FOR OUP GAME BIRDS

PRCPMCDi

\ _TI HE federal regulation* I |J for the protection of I shore birds. waterfowl I* and other migratory kA_U /, birds are being strict- » ly enforced during the tall shooting season.' In recent years a number of causes hare contributed to diminish the numbers of the migratory game bird* to such an extent that vigorous measures are necessary to prevent their total extermination. The federal government has therefore supplemented the various state laws with regulations which are given below. Shorebirds in particular—including snipe, woodcock, curlew, avocet. plover. yellow-legs and sandpipers or “peep#"—have suffered from persecution. As late as the seventies these birds were found In vast numbers not only on the sea coasts and near the Great Lakes but even on the prairies. Since then, however, they have been slaughtered mercilessly. One man in Louisiana, for example, killed in the oourse of twenty years 69,087 snipe, an average of 3,500 birds a winter. On one December day in 1877 he shot 366. The Wilson snipe—usually referred to simply as snipe—offer perhaps the best sport of any of the smaller birds. They are, however, decreasing so rapidly that snipe shooting, like buffalo hunting, is likely to be a thing of the past, if adequate protection is not afforded. The chief cause for the decrease is undoubtedly winter shooting in the southern part of the United States, where the snipe spend approximately six months. The birds nest principally in Canada, though a few breed as far south as the latitude of New York city. In September and October they move southward toward the Gulf of Mexico, offering excellent shooting to sportsmen in some of the territory through which they pass. In the northern states nature provides in this way a natural limit to the open season, which usually does not exceed six or seven weeks. In the wintering grounds of the South, however, there is no such natural protection and the birds are continuously exposed to slaughter. The extent of this slaughter in the past has already been indicated. To put a stop to this in the future and to provide, with adequate protection for the birds, equal opportunities for sportsmen in all sections Is one object of the federal regulations. Spring shooting is absolutely prohibited because of the waste involved in killing birds on their way to the breeding grounds in Canada, where they are fully protected. If allowed to reach these grounds unmolested they will return six months later with their numbers increased from 50 to 100 per cent. Next to the snipe, the woodcock is

by THE U.S.DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

the most important of the Bhore birds. With reasonable protection the woodcock will thrive even in a thickly Bettied country, and as it does no harm to agriculture there is no reason why it should not remain indefinitely available for sport. It has, however, been seriously threatened by two factors — winter storms and summer shooting. The birds winter as far north as they can find unfrozen ground. In consequence a severe cold wave is likely to reduce them to starvation and drive them into places where they can be slaughtered unmercifully. In 1892, for instance, a gale that swept coast of South Carolina drove theflß thousands into the streets of where fully two thousand killed in one day. The shooting of mated birds in spring and the massacre of young ones in summer have contributed to bring the woodcock to the verge of extermination. The Eskimo curlew affords an excellent object lesson of the ease with which a species once abundant can be actually exterminated. On the prairies west of the Mississippi vast flocks on their way to Labrador were formerly a common sight; in the last dozen years scarcely a dozen individual birds have been seen. The close-packed ranks of the migrating birds offered the easiest of marks and they were literally mowed down In spring before they could reach their breeding grounds. In addition, they -were slaughtered for months in their winter home in the Argentine, and the final touch to their destruction was given when both the Argentine and the western prairies were turned into vast wheat fields. To save our other species from the fate of the Eskimo curlew Is the object of the federal migratory bird law. Since the birds are continually passing from state to state, experience has shown that the laws of individual states are not sufficient protection and that this can only be afforded by a scheme comprehensive enough to include the whole range of the birds’ travels. * Under the federal regulations the

J country is divided into • / 1, the breeding zone, y includes the states of .. v : - / Oregon, Idaho, Colo- " rado, Nebraska, lowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, / Pennsylvania and New U-A-J Jersey, and all states north of them. Zone no. 2, the wintering zone. Includes all states south of those named. The regulations prescribe seasons as follows: OPEN SEASONS FOR MIGRATORY BIRDS IN 1915 UNDER FEDERAL REGULATIONS—ZONE NO. 1. WATERFOWL, Sept. 1-Dec. 1« Exceptions: Massachusetts, Rhode Island Oct. 1-Jan. 1 New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington, Idaho Oct. 1-Jan. 16 New Jersey Nov, 1-Feb. 1 Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin Sept. 7-Dec. 1 RAILS, COOTS. GALLINULES...... Sept. 1-Dec. 1 Exceptions: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island Aug. 15-Dec. 1 Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Long Island Sept. 16-Dec. 1 Minnesota, North Dakota. South Dakota, Wisconsin Sept. 7-Dec. 1 Oregon, Washington Oct. 1-Jan. 16 WOODCOCK Oct. 1-Dec. 1 Exceptions: Connecticut, Massachusetts. New Jersey Oct. 10-Dec. 1 Rhode Island Nov. 1-Dec. 1 Pennsylvania, Long Island Oct. 15-Dec. 1 SHORE BIRDS—BLACK-BREASTED AND GOLDEN PLOVER. JACKSNIPE, YELLOWLEGS.. Sept. 1-Dec. 16 Exceptions: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampsire, Rhode Island, Long Island Aug. 15-Dec. 1 New York (except Long Island).... Sept. 16-Dec. 1 Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin Sept. 7-Dec. 1 Oregon, Washington Oct. 1-Dec. 16 Insectivorous birds protected Indefinitely. Band-tailed pigeons, cranes, swans, curlew, smaller shore birds, and wood ducks protected until September 1, 1918. Rails in Vermont and woodcock in Illinois also protected until 1918. ’ Shooting prohibited between 1 sunset and sunrise; or at any time on sections of upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers after January 1, 1915. OPEN SEASONS FOR MIGRATORY BIRDS IN 1915 UNDER FEDERAL REGULATIONS—ZONE NO. 2. I WATERFOWL Oct. 1-Jan. 16 Exceptions: Delaware. Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi. Louisiana Nov. 1-Feb. 1 Florida, Georgia, South Carolina.. Nov. 1-Feb. 16 Missouri, Kansas. Oklahoma Sept. 15-Feb. 1 Arizona, California, Texas. Oct. 15-Feb. 1 RAILS. COOTS, GALLINULES Sept. 1-Dec. 1 Exceptions: Tennessee, Utah Oct. 1-Dec. 1 Missouri Sept. 15-Jan. 1 Louisiana Nov. 1-Feb. 1 Arizona, California (coots) Oct. 15-Feb. 1 WOODCOCK ..Nov. 1-Jan. 1 Exceptions: Delaware, Louisiana.... Nov. 15-Jan. 1 West Virginia Oct. 1-Dec. 1 Georgia Dec. 1-Jan.' 1 SHORE BIRDS—BLACK-BREASTED AND GOLDEN PLOVER. JACKSNIPE, YELLOWLEGS.. Sept. 1-Dec. 16 Exceptions: Florida. Georgia. South Carolina Nov. 20-Feb. 1 Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi,^ Texas Nov. 1- 1 Tennessee Oct. 1-Dec. 16 Arizona, CaUf0rni&.,.......0et. 15-Feb. 1 Utah (snipe) Oct. 1-Dec. 16 Utah (plover and yellowlegs) Sept. 1. 19» Insectivorous birds protected indefinitely. Band-tailed pigeons, cranes, swans, curlew, and smaller shore birds protected until September 1, 1918; wood ducks in Kansas and West Vir ginia, rails and wood ducks in California, and woodcock in Missouri are alsc protected until September 1, 1918. Shooting prohibited between sunset and sunrise; or at any time on the Mississippi river between Minneapolis and Memphis, after January 1, 1915.