NT--HOW LAWS ARE MADE

Laws for the protection of wild birds and animals have been enacted in
greater numbers in the United States than in any other country in the
world. In a Government Bulletin on American Game Protection, Dr. T. S.
Palmer states that the earliest game laws were probably the hunting
privileges granted in 1629 by the West India Company to persons
planting colonies in the New Netherlands, and the provisions granting
the right of hunting in the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Ordinance of
1647. As soon as the United States Government was formed, in 1776, the
various States began to make laws on the subject, and these have
increased in numbers with the passing of years. For example, between
the years 1901 to 1910, North {168} Carolina alone passed three hundred
and six different game laws. As various forms of game birds or animals
showed indications of decreasing in numbers new laws were called into
existence in an attempt to conserve the supply for the benefit of the
people. Not infrequently laws were passed offering bounties or
otherwise encouraging the killing of wolves, pumas, and other predatory
animals, or of birds regarded as injurious to growing crops or to
poultry raising.

State laws intended primarily for the protection of wild life may be
grouped as follows: (1) naming the time of the year when various kinds
of game may be hunted; these hunting periods are called "open seasons."
(2) The prohibition of certain methods formally employed in taking
game, as, for example, netting, trapping, and shooting at night. (3)
Prohibiting or regulating the sale of game. By destroying the market
the incentive for much excessive killing is removed. (4) Bag limit;
that is, indicating the number of birds or animals that may be shot in
a day; for example, in Louisiana one may kill twenty-five {169} Ducks
in a day, and in Arizona one may shoot two male deer in a season. (5)
Providing protection at all seasons for useful birds not recognized as
game species.

_Definition of Game._--Game animals as defined today include bears,
coons, deer, mountain sheep, caribou, cougars, musk oxen, white goats,
rabbits, squirrels, opossums, wolves, antelopes, and moose. Game birds
include Swans, Geese, Ducks, Rails, Coots, Woodcocks, Snipes, Plovers,
Curlews, Wild Turkeys, Grouse, Pheasants, Partridges, and Quails.
Sometimes other birds or animals have been regarded as game. Robins
and Mourning Doves, for example, are sti