GAME LAWS, statutes which regulate the right to pursue and take or kill certain kinds of wild animals. For game laws in the U.S. see page 3. In Great Britain by common law wild animals were only property when reduced into possession by being killed or captured. Hence statutes were required to protect sporting rights. Royal rights were protected by special laws (see FOREST LAWS), but where royal rights do not exist the right to take or kill wild animals is incidental to the ownership or occupation of the land on which they are found. In England the chief statutes are the Night Poaching Acts, 1828 and 1841, Game Act, 1831, Poaching Prevention Act, 1862, Ground Game Acts, 188o and 1906, and acts for the protection of wild birds, of which the latest is the Protec tion of Lapwings Act, 1928.
Pursuit of game on another's land without his consent is a tres pass for which the pursuer is civilly liable, although when deer or hares are hunted with hounds or greyhounds there is no criminal liability. In other cases trespassers may be prosecuted, but the game taken by a trespasser belongs to him unless it was both started and killed on the land of the one owner, when it belongs to such owner. Even so the killing and taking it away as part of one continuous act is not larceny (R. v. Townley, 1871, L.R.1C. C.R. 315) . The young of wild animals, before they can fly or run away, belong to the owner of the land on which they are.
Rights of chase, park and free warren depend on Crown grant or prescription founded on lost grant. Free warren is quite different from ordinary warrens, in which hares or rabbits are bred by the owner of the soil for sport or profit. Ground game in such war rens is protected under the Larceny Act, 1861, s. 17, as well as by the game laws. In manors, the lord by his franchise had the sporting rights over the manor, but at the present time this right is restricted to the commons and wastes of the manor, the free hold whereof is in him, and does not extend to enclosed freeholds nor as a general rule to enclosed copyholds, unless at the time of enclosure the sporting rights were reserved to him by the En closure Act or award (Sowerby v. Smith, 1873, L.R. 8 C.P. 5I4)• The Game Act 1831 gives lords of manors and privileged persons certain rights as to appointing gamekeepers with special powers to protect game within the district over which their rights extend (ss. 13, 14, 15, 16). The game laws in no way cut down the special privileges as to forest, park, chase or free warren (1831, s. 9), and confirm the sporting right of lords of manors on the wastes of the manor (1831, s. 1o). On lands not affected by these rights, the right to kill or take game is presumably in the occupier. On letting land the owner may, subject to the qualifications herein after stated, reserve to himself the right to kill or take "game" or rabbits or other wild animals concurrently with or in exclusion of the tenant. Where the exclusive right is in the landlord, the tenant is not only liable to forfeiture or damages for breaches of covenants in the lease, but is also liable to penalties on summary conviction if without the lessor's authority he pursues, kills or takes any "game" upon the land or gives permission to others to do so (1831, s. 12) . In effect he is made criminally liable for game trespass on lands in his own occupation, so far as relates to game, but not if he takes rabbits, snipe, woodcock, quails or rails.
The net effect of the common law and the game laws is to give the occupier of lands and the owner of sporting rights over them the following remedies against persons who infringe their right to kill or take wild animals on the land. A stranger who enters on the land of another to take any wild animals is liable to the occupier for trespass on the land and for the animals started and killed on the land by the trespasser. He is also criminally liable for game trespass if he has entered on the land to search for or in pursuit of "game" or woodcock, snipe, quail, landrails or rab bits. If the trespass is in the daytime the penalty may not exceed 40s., unless five or more persons go together, in which case the maximum penalty is f 5. If a single offender refuses his name or address or gives a false address to the occupier or to the owner of the sporting rights or his representatives or refuses to leave the land, he may be arrested by them, and is liable to a penalty not exceeding f 5, and if five or more concerned together in game trespass have a gun with them and use violence, intimidation or menace, to prevent the approach of persons entitled to take their names or order them off the land, they incur a further penalty up to f5.
If the trespass is in search or pursuit of game or rabbits in the night-time, the maximum penalty on a first conviction is im prisonment with hard labour for three months ; on a second, im prisonment, etc., for six months, and the offender may be put under sureties not to offend again for a year after a first con viction or for two years after a second conviction. For a first or second offence the conviction is summary, subject to appeal to quarter sessions, but for a third offence the offender is tried on indictment and is liable to penal servitude (three–seven years) or imprisonment with hard labour (two years). The offenders may be arrested by the owner or occupier of the land or their serv ants, and if the offenders assault or offer violence by firearms or offensive weapons they are liable to be indicted and on conviction punished to the same extent as in the last offence. In 1844 the above penalties were extended to persons found by night on highways in search or pursuit of game. If three or more trespass together on land by night to take or destroy game or rabbits, and any of them is armed with firearms, bludgeon or other offensive weapon, they are liable to be indicted and on conviction sentenced to penal servitude (3-14 years) or imprisonment with hard labour (two years) . By "day" time is meant from the beginning of the first hour before sunrise to the end of the first hour after sunset. It is illegal and severely punishable, however, to set traps or loaded spring guns for poachers, whereby any grievous bodily harm is intended or may be caused even to a trespasser, so that poach ers can be prevented only by personal attendance on the scene of their activities ; and the provisions of the game laws above stated are, so far as concerns private land, left to be enforced by private enterprise without the interference of the police, with the result that in some districts there are scenes of private noc turnal war. Even in the Night Poaching Act, 1844, which applies to highways, the arrest of offenders is made by owners, occu piers or their game-keepers. The police were not given any direct authority as to poachers until the Poaching Prevention Act, 1862. In all cases of summary conviction for poaching an appeal lies to quarter sessions. In all cases of poaching the game, etc., taken may be forfeited by the court which tries the poacher.
*Sept. i in Devon, Somerset and New Forest.
tScotland only.
$England only.
§Also in certain districts under Wild Birds Protection Orders. Lap wings are also protected by the Protection of Lapwings Act, 1928.
The sale of game when killed is also subject to statutory regu lation. Gamekeepers may not sell game except under the authority of their employer (183 i, ss. 17, 25). Persons who hold a full game licence may sell game, but only to persons who hold a licence to deal in game. These licences are annual (expiring on July I), and are granted in London by justices of the peace, and in the rest of England by the council of the borough or urban or rural district in which the dealer seeks to carry on business (1831, s. 18 ; 1893, c. 73, s. 27), and a notice of the existence of the licence must be posted on the licensed premises. A licence must be taken out for each shop. Certain persons are disqualified for holding the licence (1831, s. 18) . The licensed dealer may buy British game only from persons who are lawfully entitled to sell game. Con viction of an offence under the Game Act, 1831, avoids the licence (s. 22). The local licence must also be supplemented by an excise licence for which a fee of f 2 (f 3 in the Irish Free State) is charged.
Deer are not within the definition of game but to hunt or kill deer in enclosures in forests, chases or purlieus, or in enclosed land where deer is usually kept, or after a previous conviction to hunt or kill deer in the open parts of a forest, is a felony, and certain minor provisions are made as to arrest by foresters, for feiture of venison unlawfully possessed and for unlawfully setting traps for deer. These enactments do not prevent a man from killing on his own land deer which have strayed there (Threlkeld v. Smith, 1901, 2 K.B. 531). In Scotland the unlawful killing of deer is punished as theft.
On moorland and unenclosed lands (which are not arable and do not consist of detached portions of less than 25 ac.) the occu pier may between Sept. 1 and March I kill and take ground game; but between Sept. 1 and Dec. 1 o firearms may not be used (188o, s. I [3] ; 1906, s. 2) . In the case of such lands the occupiers and the owners of the sporting rights may between Sept. 1 and Dec. 1 o make and enforce for their joint benefit agreements for taking the ground game. The Agricultural Holdings Act, 1906 (operating from 1909) deals, inter alia, with damage to crops by deer and winged game, but does not apply to damage by hares or rabbits. The tenant of agricultural land without the right to kill is entitled to compensation for damage to his crops exceeding is. per acre over the area affected if caused by game (s. 2). The right of the tenant is indefeasible.
The common law as to game is the same for Ireland as for Eng land. The game laws of Ireland are contained partly in acts passed prior to the union (1698, 1707, 1787 and 1797), partly in acts limited to Ireland, and as to the rest in acts common to the whole United Kingdom which continue in force both in Northern Ireland and in the Irish Free State.
Night poaching in Ireland is dealt with by an act of 1826. Tres pass on lands in pursuit of game to which the landlord or lessor has by reservation exclusive right is summarily punishable under an act of 1864, which includes in the definition of game, wood cock, snipe, quails, landrails, wild duck, widgeon and teal. Under the Land Act, 1881, the landlord of a statutory holding may at the commencement of the term subject to the Ground Game Acts retain and exercise the exclusive right of taking "game" as above defined.
A game licence is not required for taking or killing rabbits. But in other respects the law as to game licences and licences to deal in game is the same as in Great Britain.
See Oke's Game Laws (5th ed., 1912) ; Nolan, Sporting Rights (19i4)• (W. F. C.; F. G.) The United States established game laws for the protection of game rather than the granting of exclusive hunting or fishing rights to any persons. As early as 1623 the Plymouth Colony passed a law declaring all hunting and fishing to be free, except on private property. No class legislation exists. Possession of game by killing belongs, subject to limitations of the State law, to him who kills or catches, not, as in England, to the landowner on whose property such game may be caught or bagged. During the season of reproduction, wild game and fish may not be molested.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has as one of its func tions the conservation and protection of wild game and migratory birds. Among the most important enactments are the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, passed in 1918, and the Lacey Act, passed in 1900. The treaty act protects species that pass between the United States and Canada, and the Lacey Act regulates interstate com merce in game and controls the importation of foreign animals and birds, preventing illicit interstate traffic in game, and ex cluding injurious species of foreign birds and animals. The Federal migratory bird law may be further restricted by State legislation. Each State has intricate and detailed laws of its own, often conflicting with those of another State.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, growing out of a convention between the United States and Great Britain signed in 1916, has resulted in greatly co-ordinated State laws relating to migratory game birds, and has given to the Department of Agriculture power to regulate within certain limits the capture, possession and disposition of migratory birds. Fundamental items found in such enactments include the abolition of spring shooting, suspen sion of sale and the prescription of definite, reasonable, daily bag limits, while, by the terms of the treaty, open seasons are re stricted to a period not exceeding three and one-half months in any one year between Aug. 15 and March io.
Particularly important for the protection of game is the estab lishment of adequate breeding and resting grounds. Increasing commercial developments have made serious inroads upon the natural breeding and resting grounds of all wild life; drainage of marshes and lakes has been one means of destroying large water areas suitable for the production of game. To offset this destruc tion of natural reproduction areas, the Government has set aside reservations, which either directly or indirectly protect wild life. (See GAME RESERVES.) There are administering agencies in national parks and other reservations to protect, incidentally, wild life. These include: the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Fisheries, the Bureau of Lighthouses and the War and Navy Departments. Under the Bureau of Biological Survey are 8o game and bird reservations, all of which are bird refuges and five of them are stocked with big game. Additions to the number are made from year to year.
Federal and State laws alike allow the capture of game for prop agation purposes under permit. Various restrictions govern the sale of game raised in captivity, additional licences and fees being required. In some States traffic in such game is legal, and the game may be sold for food or scientific purposes. The Federal regulations allow shooting of such game only in the open season of the State in which it is killed, provided migratory fowl raised in captivity shall have had removed, before attaining a certain age, a portion of the web of one foot.
The first general game law in Alaska was enacted in 1902 and revised in 1908, though adequate provision for conservation in Alaska, particularly of game and land fur-bearing animals, came only in 1925, when the Alaska game law was passed. This created a commission of five resident members, one of whom is the chief representative of the Bureau of Biological Survey in Alaska, and provides for fuller protection of wild life. Eskimos and Indians are at liberty to hunt game at any time for the use of themselves and their immediate families for food and clothing.
Common to nearly all States are the following provisions : hunting licences are required, with the fee for residents much lower than for non-residents; in many States licences on private property are not required by owners, while trespassing on another's property without permit is forbidden ; no fishing licences are needed in some States by minors under 16 to 18 years of age; and in others minors under 17 may hunt without a licence if ac companied by a holder of a general licence. There are strict regu lations for selling protected game. Possession of game taken out of the State is usually subject to local laws, but possession of migratory birds is restricted to the open season and the first io or 15 days of the closed season. In a few States reports must be made within a limited time to the State commissioner of game, stating the number and kind of game killed, and in several States the commissioner may close or open a season either because of depleted stocks or of depredations by game on crops.
In a few States aliens are not permitted to hunt or to own fire arms, but special cases are excepted by the commissioners upon the payment of a large fee. Special privileges are accorded soldiers, veterans of the Indian, Civil and World Wars in six States and in the Territory of Alaska to native-born Indians and Eskimos. In New York State none but licensed Indians may hunt on Indian reservations.
Canada.—The Dominion of Canada has a general law pro hibiting the export of deer carcasses, wild turkey, quail, par tridge, prairie fowl and woodcock. The Migratory Birds Conven tion Act is supplemented by regulations similar to those governing the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the United States. Full text of the regulations will be found in an annual publication by the commissioner of national parks of Canada, Ottawa.
Each province makes its own laws and regulations for hunting game. All non-residents must have licences, the cost of such licences varying in amount according to the kind of game ; resi dents' fees are lower, and in Manitoba no licence is required of a resident hunting on his own property. There are special regula tions for guides, and, in the case of hunting big game, in Mani toba and Saskatchewan the costume worn by the hunter must be white. The licencee is required to report the number of big game and game-birds killed.
The laws governing the sale of game vary in all the provinces ; in Ontario, some native game may be sold; in Nova Scotia, little game except rabbits in a certain season; in Prince Edward island all game lawfully killed (except migratory birds) may be sold; the same is true of Quebec, birch or spruce partridge being excepted also ; New Brunswick forbids the sale of all game except that a licensed hunter may sell moose or deer lawfully killed by him ; in Alberta, only heads of big ,game may be sold under special sale fees.
The export of all protected game is prohibited except in Yukon and Quebec ; geese and brant in Prince Edward island ; special permits, however, may be obtained from the commissioner. Deer raised on private lands may be exported ; all birds so raised must be killed by other means than shooting, and so tagged before they can be sold. Most of the provinces allow game raised in captivity to be bought, sold and exported for propagation purposes.
For open seasons on game for the United States, Canada, New foundland and Mexico, for bag limits and possession, and regula tions regarding sale and interstate transportation of game, see bulletins issued annually by State and Provincial game commis sioners and Farmers' Bulletins on game laws, compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Minor exceptions in individual States and Provinces may be found by consulting the game laws published by each. (X.) Game Protection in the U.S.—The game of the United States is in danger of extinction. This is due to the American system of "free shooting" for every citizen, the dictation of killing laws and regulations by the killers themselves, the reluctance of the killing majority to give up its killing "rights" so long as any game re mains. For 5o years the laws of the United States have permitted wasteful killing of game. Even in 1928 many open seasons were too long, and many bag limits 4o% too high. All States save Pennsylvania and New Jersey tolerate the extra-deadly automatic and pump shotguns, the use of live decoys and the baiting of ducking waters. Along with these blunders are to be reckoned the loss of natural cover and food, exposure to natural enemies, the severity of extra hard winters and now the scourge of the hunting automobile. The net loss of marshes and lakes by drain age as a factor in waterfowl decrease has been much exaggerated, and so has the disappearance of heavy timber. Much harm was wrought during the six years from 1921 to 1927 by the policy of the eastern promoters of a certain public-shooting-grounds bill in opposing constructive Federal legislation while failing to enact their own measure. Unfortunately the American machinery for the destruction of American game is now so vast, so varied and so uncontrollable, its momentum is so great, that it is a question whether it will be possible to curb its power, or reverse it before the end of the game supply is reached.
All the game of the United States is divisible into two groups— killable and protected. The former includes the shreds and patches of about 25 species of birds, deer and black bear in quite a num ber of States, elk in three States, mountain sheep in Wyoming, white goats only in Idaho and Washington, and occasionally moose in Maine and Wyoming. Fugitive grizzly bear exist in five or six States, and black bear in probably 20 States. Of the orig inal stock of big game in the United States not more than 2% remains. In a few States cotton-tail rabbits are abundant; but squirrels are scarce nearly everywhere, and the raccoon is to be found in a few places only.
The killable upland game birds are down to the diseased and vanishing ruffed grouse, the pinnated, sharp-tailed and sage grouse, all weakly and hopelessly hanging on in less than one-half of their former States. The wild turkey's area of extermination is large, and soon the guns will destroy the remainders of that gorgeous bird. The bob-white quail has disappeared from 14 of the 35 States it once inhabited and is rapidly being exterminated in the others. In California the steadily growing scarcity of native quail is causing much alarm. It needs real protection rather than "more water." The efforts made to breed the bob-white in captivity have served only to prove the futility of such efforts.
Prairie-chicken hunting is dead in nine States, sage grouse in seven, wild-turkey hunting is banned in 14 States, and from Maine to Minnesota the ruffed grouse seems to be disappearing. The woodcock and snipe still are killable; but they are so rare that their pursuit is ethically quite wrong and generally fruitless. All other shore birds have become so scarce that now all of them are protected at all times. The ducks, brant and Canada goose, to a total of about ten species, are more or less abundant in a few spots in nine States, but are absent from about five-sixths of the great area they once inhabited in good numbers. The areas of practical extinction seem to be steadily widening. Twenty-six States have felt compelled by waterfowl scarcity to reduce their bag limits on waterfowl about 4o% below the Federal Govern ment's regulations. For official information regarding the extinc tion of game hunting in each of the 48 States and Canada, see Game Laws of 1927-28, published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The class of "protected" species includes all the "game" mam mals and birds that are living in sanctuaries where they can never be hunted or killed. Any game "preserve" that permits the hunt ing and killing of any of its wild inhabitants for "sport" is dis tinctly not a sanctuary, and for it the term "game preserve" is a misnomer that never should be employed.
The numerous and costly efforts that have been made by many States in importing tender foreign quail to restock their lifeless game "areas" usually have been disappointing. In another ten or 15 years, unless drastic action is taken, the killable game of the United States will be so completely gone that the sport of game hunting will be as dead as buffalo hunting. The sizes of the 48 State armies of game destroyers stagger the imagination. The story is told by the annual hunting licences. For example, Pennsyl vania and New York each turn out annually over 600,000 hunters. The small State of New Jersey has 155,567 hunters; the large State of California has 252,017. In the autumn of 1926 the grand total of licensed hunters taking the field in the United States was They were carried to their greatly expanded hunting grounds, in quick time, by perhaps 2,000,000 automobiles. All their guns are breech-loading and rapid-fire. Of their shotguns, about 85% are of the super-deadly choke-bore, automatic and "pump" pattern, spraying out either five or six charges of shot without removal from the shoulder. The gunpowder used is of extra strength and super-deadliness. These hunters are assisted by guides, dogs, boats, blinds, decoys, baited waters and other devices to take unfair advantage of the helpless game. Game birds are constantly harassed in flight and while trying to feed or rest, by the booming guns, plus the warfare of the predatory birds and mammals that sportsmen call "vermin." For the disappearance of game during the 3o years ending in 1928 the hunter himself is fully 90% to blame. See also NATIONAL PARKS. (W. T. H.) Measures for Game Protection.—The protection of wild life involves several elements, outstanding among which are the in surance of adequate habitat (see GAME RESERVES) ; the enact ment and enforcement of wise conservation laws (see above) ; the control of both predatory animals and birds of prey; the remedying of conditions productive of diseases and parasites in breeding and feeding areas of wild life; the proper disposal of surpluses from the annual increase; and the cultivation of a proper attitude of mind on the part of sportsmen and the public generally toward game protection.
Of first importance in measures for game protection is pro vision for refuge areas, where wild birds and other species can feed, breed and rest undisturbed by man. In the United States, the rapid development of the once wild portions of the country has taken from many of the birds and mammals large areas of their former haunts. Because of this, a great responsibility de volves upon the public agencies of the State and Federal Govern ments charged with the protection and maintenance of the wild life to do everything possible to re-establish in part at least these lost homes. Refuges that have been established in the United States have been effective in saving from threatened extinction such noble game animals as the buffalo, elk, antelope and the mountain sheep. The Upper Mississippi River Wild Life and Fish Refuge, which comprises large areas of low lands extending approximately 30o m. down the Mississippi river from Wabasha, Minn., is beginning to serve well not only for the conservation of the waterfowl that come to this region in abundance but for the increase of such water-using animals as the beaver and muskrat. Several of the States have established refuges for waterfowl and also for upland birds, and a few of the Federal refuges set aside by executive order include marshland areas that serve various species of wild fowl and valuable fur animals.
Next in importance to the maintenance of refuge areas for game-protection purposes is the existence of adequate game laws, and both State and Federal Governments have made long strides in this respect. These laws deal with the limitations on the num ber of birds or animals that may be taken in a given period, definitions of proper open seasons on game, prohibition of the sale of game and of the use of devices of great destructiveness heretofore employed in hunting, requirements of reports to public agencies on the number and kind of animals and birds taken under licences issued, and the institution of an appropriate method of tagging in connection with big game and important fur-bearers to ensure that the animals have been legally taken and may be lawfully transported. More and more noticeable is the tendency among public agencies to plan their enforcement programme to suit the needs of the birds or animals that are to be protected rather than to agree to a setting of seasons and limits that might be classed as political expedients. Many of the State game corn missions—and in the Federal Government, the Bureau of Biologi cal Survey—by legislative act have been given broad authority to handle promptly and by regulation such restrictions as are deemed to be necessary for the welfare of the birds and animals involved.
Another important factor in game protection is that which has to do with the control of predatory animals and birds of prey. The Federal Government and many of the States are spending considerable sums to reduce the numbers of such predacious ani mals as the wolf, coyote, mountain lion and the bobcat. As a result of the campaign waged against the coyote by the Federal Government and its co-operators in the Western States the deer have increased rapidly, and the antelope, the very existence of which seemed to be threatened, is coming back because of the lessening of damage done to fawns by this predator. Attention is now being given in many quarters to the control of such birds of prey as the goshawk, the sharp-shinned and Cooper hawks, and the magpie and crow, which are locally injurious to beneficial birds. Control measures for the welfare of game animals and birds are necessary also in connection with the diseases and para sites to which they are subject when concentrated on natural feeding and breeding areas or on game preserves. Maladies such as that known as alkali poisoning develop among wild ducks and other species that are limited by the advancement of farming operations to waters that become in effect death-traps for the birds. Measures that have been undertaken to remedy these ad verse conditions include the building of dikes for impounding fresh waters, a notable example of which is furnished in the Federal Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, on the marshes at the north end of Great Salt Lake, Utah, a concentration area for the wild fowl of many surrounding States.
Just as there may be over-enthusiasm in other welfare activities, so may measures for game protection reach a stage that threatens danger to the very species sought to be protected. Such a danger arises when either refuge or non-refuge areas of limited size be come so overstocked that the available food supply is no longer adequate for their support. Game conservation in such cases has demanded the disposal of the surplus, when it cannot be cared for by an extension of needed facilities. In many cases the sur plus has been disposed of by transplanting elsewhere, as in the case of buffalo and elk from fenced preserves and deer from open areas, and in others it has been necessary for the welfare of the main stock to utilize part of the surplus as food or for other purposes.
One other element in the game-protection programme may be briefly stated as that of a proper attitude of mind by the sports men of the country toward the wild life. There are too many poachers, market hunters and night shooters ; but the true sports men obey the game laws and urge by precept and otherwise such observance on their fellows, and there are now in the United States many noted organizations of sportsmen, bird lovers and other conservationists who are zealously working to bring about better protection for the beneficial forms of the bird and animal life of the country. (P. G. R.)