75TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 3d Session

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REPORT No. 2369

ALLOWING POSSESSION OF MIGRATORY GAME BIRDS LAWFULLY TAKEN

MAY 17, 1938.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. LUCAS, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 9661]

The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9661) to allow possession of migratory game birds lawfully taken, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with the following amendment:

Line 6, after the word "of" strike out balance of that line and all of lines 7, 8, and 9, and insert in lieu thereof the following wording:

a number of migratory game birds taken by him which is not in excess of three days' legal take or bag limit, if such hunter has not exceeded, in the case of the birds in his possession, the daily legal take or bag limit for any one of such three days, and submits to the Secretary a verified statement to that effect, in such form and detail, and witnessed in such manner, as the Secretary shall by regulations prescribe.

STATEMENT

In 1916 the United States and Great Britain negotiated a treaty designed primarily for the protection of migratory birds through the adoption of a uniform system of protection. Following this, the United States Congress passed what is known as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act authorizing and directing the Secretary of Agriculture to determine when, to what extent, if at all, and by what means it is compatible to allow the hunting and killing of any migratory bird, and to adopt suitable regulations permitting and governing the same in accordance with such determinations.

Under this authority the Secretary of Agriculture had made regulations from time to time dealing with the important question of migratory bird conservation.

One of the regulations created by the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Bureau of Biological Survey, specifically states that the bag limit for any hunter for any one day is but 10 birds.

Another regulation provides that the length of the season for the taking and killing of migratory waterfowl is but 30 days.

Another regulation provides that no hunter shall have in his possession at any one time more than 10 migratory birds, even though he be permitted to kill 10 birds each day of the season.

The bill reported unanimously by the Committee on Agriculture seeks to liberalize the last regulation to the end that a hunter may have 30 ducks in his possession, provided he has reduced them to possession in accordance with the regulation dealing with the bag limit per day. And if a hunter is found with 30 ducks in his possession, the bill provides that the burden of proof is upon the hunter to show that the 30 birds in question were killed on 3 different days.

This change in the present regulations is necessary in the interests of fairness to those interested in the hunting of migratory birds. Even Dr. Gabrielson, the Chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey, has recognized the injustice of the present regulation and has so stated in a public hearing.

The original bill was introduced by the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Lucas, a member of the Committee on Agriculture, and a Representative of one of the great hunting and fishing districts in the Central West. The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Kleberg, and Chairman Jones offered amendments to the original bill which were accepted by Mr. Lucas.

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