Proclamation 2900—Amendments of the Regulations Relating to Migratory Birds

Whereas the Secretary of the Interior has prescribed and adopted, after notice and public procedure pursuant to section 4 of the Administrative Procedure Act of June 11, 1946 (60 Stat. 238), and has submitted to me for approval the following amendments of the regulations relating to migratory birds included in the terms of the Convention between the United States and Great Britain for the protection of migratory birds concluded August 16, 1916, and the Convention between the United States and the United Mexican States for the protection of migratory birds and certain game mammals concluded February 7, 1936:

AMENDMENT OF MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY ACT REGULATIONS

By virtue of and pursuant to authority vested in me by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of July 3, 1918 (40 Stat. 755), and Reorganization Plan II (53 Stat. 1431), and in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act of June 11, 1946 (60 Stat. 238), I hereby prescribe the following amendments of the regulations approved and proclaimed by Proclamation No. 2801 of July 29, 1948, as amended, and adopt such amendments as suitable regulations permitting and governing the hunting, taking, capture, killing, possession, sale, purchase, shipment, transportation, carriage, exportation, and importation of such migratory birds and parts, nests, and eggs thereof:

1. Paragraph (2) of § 6.1(a) is amended to read as follows:

(2) Insectivorous and other nongame birds. Cuckoos (including road-runner and Anis), flickers, and other woodpeckers; nighthawks, or bullbats, chuck-will's widow, poorwills, and whippoorwills; swifts; hummingbirds; kingbirds; phoebes, and other flycatchers; horned larks; bobolinks, cowbirds, blackbirds, grackles, meadowlarks, and orioles; grosbeaks (including cardinals), finches, sparrows, and buntings (including towhees); tanagers; martins and other swallows; waxwings; phainopeplas; shrikes; vireos; warblers; pipits, catbirds, mockingbirds, and thrashers; wrens; brown creepers; nuthatches; titmice (including chickadees, verdin and bushtits); kinglets and gnatcatchers; robins and other thrushes; and auks, auklets, bitterns, fulmars, gannets, grebes, guillemots, gulls, herons, jaegers, loons, murres, petrels, puffins, shearwaters, and terns.

2. Section 6.3 is amended to read as follows:

§ 6.3 Means by which migratory gamebirds may be taken. (a) Migratory game birds on which open seasons are specified in § 6.4 may be taken during such seasons only with bow and arrow or with a shotgun not larger than No 10 gage, fired from the shoulder, except as permitted by §§ 6.5, 6.8, and 6.9, but they shall not be taken with or by means of any automatic-loading or hand-operated repeating shotgun capable of holding more than three shells, the magazine of which has not been cut off or plugged with a one-piece metal or wooden filler incapable of removal without disassembling the gun so as to reduce the capacity of the said gun to not more than three shells at one time in the magazine and chamber combined. Such birds may be taken during the open seasons from land or water, with aid of a dog, and from a blind, boat or other floating craft not under tow or sail, except a sinkbox (battery), motorboat (excluding a boat having a detached outboard motor), and sailboat: Provided, That nothing herein shall permit the taking of migratory game birds from or by means, aid, or use of any motor vehicle or an aircraft of any kind; the taking of waterfowl by means, aid, or use of cattle, horses, mules, or live duck or goose decoys; the concentrating, driving, rallying, or stirring up of waterfowl and coot by means or aid of any motor-driven land, water or air conveyance or sailboat: Provided further, That nothing herein shall exclude the picking up of injured or dead waterfowl, coot, rails, or gallinules by means of a motorboat, sailboat, or other craft.

(b) Waterfowl, mourning doves and white-winged doves, may not be taken, directly or indirectly, by baiting and they may not be taken over any baited place. As used in this section "baiting" shall mean the placing, exposing, depositing, distributing, or scattering of shelled, shucked, or unshucked corn, wheat, other grain, salt, or other feed so as to constitute for such birds a lure, attraction, or enticement to, on, or over the area where hunters are attempting to take them, and "baited place" shall mean any place where, at any time during the open seasons on such birds, shelled, shucked, or unshucked corn, wheat or other grain, salt, or any other feed whatsoever that may attract such birds is directly or indirectly placed, exposed, deposited, distributed or scattered. Nothing in this section shall be construed to apply to propagating, scientific, or other operations in accordance with the terms of permits issued pursuant to § 6.8, or to the taking of birds over properly shocked corn and standing crops of corn, wheat, or other grain or feed, and grains found scattered solely as a result of normal agricultural harvesting.

(c) No person over 16 years of age may take migratory waterfowl unless at the time of such taking he has on his person an unexpired Federal migratory-bird hunting stamp, validated by his signature written across the face thereof in ink. Persons not over 16 years of age may take migratory waterfowl without such stamp.

3. Section 6.4 is amended to read as follows:

§ 6.4 Open seasons, bag limits, and possession of certain migratory game birds. (a) During the open seasons prescribed and except as hereinafter provided in this section ducks, geese, brant, and coot may be taken daily from one-half hour before sunrise to one hour before sunset, and rails, gallinules, woodcock, mourning or turtle doves, white-winged doves, and band-tailed pigeons from one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. The hour for the commencement of hunting of waterfowl and coot on the first day of the season, including each first day of the split seasons, shall be 12 o'clock noon.

(b) A person may take in any one day during the open seasons prescribed therefor not to exceed the numbers of migratory game birds herein permitted, which numbers shall include all birds taken by any other person who for hire accompanies or assists him in taking such birds. When so taken, such birds may be possessed in the number specified in this section, except that no person on the opening day of the season may possess any migratory game birds in excess of the applicable daily limits.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to permit the taking of migratory birds on any reservation or sanctuary established under the Migratory Bird Conservation Act of February 18, 1929 (45 Stat. 1222), or on any area of the United States set aside under any other law, proclamation, or Executive order for use as a bird, game, or other wildlife reservation, breeding ground, or refuge except so far as may be permitted by the Secretary of the Interior under existing law, or on any area designated as a closed area under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

(d) The open seasons (dates inclusive) on the following migratory game birds only, the daily bag and possession limits, and the exceptions to the hours of hunting heretofore stated, shall be as shown in the following schedules:

(a) Atlanta Flyway States:

Provided, however, That whenever the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service shall find that emergency State action to prevent forest fires in any extensive area has resulted in the shortening of the season during which the hunting of any migratory game bird is permitted and that a compensatory extension or reopening of the hunting season for such birds will not result in a diminution of the abundance of birds to any greater extent than that contemplated for the original hunting season, the hunting season for the birds so affected may, subject to all other provisions of this subchapter, be extended or reopened by the Director upon request of the chief officer of the agency of the State exercising administration over wildlife resources. The Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service shall fix the length of the extended or reopened season, which in no event shall exceed the number of days during which hunting has been so prohibited, and he shall publicly announce the extended or reopened season.

4. Section 6.6 paragraph (c) is amended to read as follows:

(c) Possession. Within the maximum possession limits prescribed by § 6.4 migratory game birds lawfully taken within a State or transported or imported in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs (a) or (b) of this section, may be possessed in any State, District of Columbia, Alaska, or Puerto Rico during the open season where taken and for an additional 90 days next succeeding the said open season.

For the purposes of these regulations the ownership and possession of birds legally taken by any hunter shall be deemed to have ceased when such birds have been delivered by him to (1) a post office, (2) a common carrier, or (3) a locker, storage plant, or similar facility for transportation to some person other than the hunter or a member of the hunter's immediate household. As used in this section, "locker, storage plant, or similar facility" includes only those facilities as are engaged in the business of receiving and handling birds and keep and make available for inspection by any officer authorized to enforce these regulations at any reasonable time records showing the names and addresses of both the consignors and the consignees of such birds.

5. Section 6.10, including its title, is amended to read as follows:

§ 6.10 Revocation of certain existing permits. Permits which were issued prior to July 1, 1949, which bear no expiration date, and which authorize the possession of waterfowl for propagating purposes of the taking of migratory birds for scientific purposes, not including permits to band birds, are hereby revoked as of November 1, 1950.

As previously indicated in notices published in the Federal Register on July 7, 1950, and August 8, 1950, pursuant to section 4 of the Administrative Procedure Act of June 11, 1946 (60 Stat. 238), the breeding habits of many species of migratory birds, particularly waterfowl, are such that a comprehensive analysis of the various factors affecting the current year's abundance and distribution of such birds should not be considered earlier than the first week of August of each year. At the same time such notices stated that information then available regarding the distribution and abundance of doves, rails, and gallinules, and waterfowl in certain geographical areas, permitted the inclusion in those notices of schedules showing the proposed September open seasons, and related bag and possession limits, on such birds. The information contained in the schedules also was furnished to appropriate State game officials and to the public by publication in widely distributed newspapers and other publications and by other means. The open seasons, daily bag and possession limits, and other limitations specified in the notice of July 7, as modified by the notice of August 8, now have been included without change in the above amendments. In these circumstances, it has been determined that the public interests will best be served if those portions of § 6.3, Means by which migratory game birds may be taken, and

§ 6.4, Open seasons, bag limits, and possession of certain migratory game birds, relating to (1) rails and gallinules; (2) doves (white-winged, mourning or turtle); (3) band-tailed pigeons; (4) waterfowl in Alaska; (5) scoter, elder, and old squaw ducks in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island become effective September 1, 1950.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of the Department of the Interior to be affixed, this 24th day of August 1950.

OSCAR L. CHAPMAN,

Secretary of the Interior.

And Whereas upon consideration it appears that approval of the foregoing amendments will effectuate the purposes of the aforesaid Migratory Bird Treaty Act:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 3 of the said Migratory Bird Treaty Act of July 3, 1918, do hereby approve and proclaim the foregoing amendments.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 28th day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fifth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Secretary of State.