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Whereas many species of birds in the course of their annual
migrations traverse certain parts of the Dominion of Canada and
the United States; and
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Whereas many of these species are of great value as a source
of food or in destroying insects which are injurious to forests and
forage plants on the public domain, as well as to agricultural
crops, in both Canada and the United States, but are nevertheless
in danger of extermination through lack of adequate protection
during the nesting season or while on their way to and from their
breeding grounds;
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His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland and of the British dominions beyond the seas,
Emperor of India, and the United States of America, being
desirous of saving from indiscriminate slaughter and of insuring
the preservation of such migratory birds as are either useful to
man or are harmless, have resolved to adopt some uniform
system of protection which shall effectively accomplish such
objects, and to the end of concluding a convention for this
purpose have appointed as their respective plenipotentiaries:
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His Britannic Majesty, the Right Honourable Sir Cecil Arthur
Spring-Rice, G.C.V.O., K.C.M.G., etc., His Majesty's
ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary at Washington;
and
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The President of the United States of America, Robert
Lansing, Secretary of State of the United States;
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Who, after having communicated to each other their
respective full powers which were found to be in due and proper
form, have agreed to and adopted the following articles:-
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The High Contracting Powers declare that the migratory birds
included in the terms of this Convention shall be as follows:-
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1. Migratory Game Birds:-
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(a) Anatidae or waterfowl, including brant, wild ducks, geese,
and swans;
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(b) Gruidae or cranes, including little brown, sandhill, and
whooping cranes;
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(c) Rallidae or rails, including coots, gallinules and sora and
other rails;
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(d) Limicolae or shorebirds, including avocets, curlew,
dowitchers, godwits, knots, oyster catchers, phalaropes,
plovers, sandpipers, snipe, stilts, surf birds, turnstones, willet,
woodcock, and yellowlegs;
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(e) Columbidae or pigeons, including doves and wild
pigeons.
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2. Migratory Insectivorous Birds: Bobolinks, catbirds,
chickadees, cuckoos, flickers, flycatchers, grosbeaks, humming
birds, kinglets, martins, meadowlarks, nighthawks or bull bats,
nuthatches, orioles, robins, shrikes, swallows, swifts, tanagers,
titmice, thrushes, vireos, warblers, waxwings, whippoorwills,
woodpeckers, and wrens, and all other perching birds which feed
entirely or chiefly on insects.
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3. Other Migratory Nongame Birds: Auks, auklets, bitterns,
fulmars, gannets, grebes, guillemots, gulls, herons, jaegers,
loons, murres, petrels, puffins, shearwaters, and terns.
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The High Contracting Parties agree that, as an effective means
of preserving migratory birds, there shall be established the
following close seasons during which no hunting shall be done
except for scientific or propagating purposes under permits
issued by proper authorities.
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1. The close season on migratory game birds shall be between
10th March and 1st September, except that the close of the season
on the limicolae or shorebirds in the Maritime Provinces of
Canada and in those states of the United States bordering on the
Atlantic ocean which are situated wholly or in part north of
Chesapeake Bay shall be between 1st February and 15th August,
and that Indians may take at any time scoters for food but not for
sale. The season for hunting shall be further restricted to such
period not exceeding three and one-half months as the High
Contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate and define
by law or regulation.
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2. The close season on migratory insectivorous birds shall
continue throughout the year.
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3. The close season on other migratory nongame birds shall
continue throughout the year, except that Eskimos and Indians
may take at any season auks, auklets, guillemots, murres and
puffins, and their eggs for food and their skins for clothing, but
the birds and eggs so taken shall not be sold or offered for sale.
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The High Contracting Powers agree that during the period of
ten years next following the going into effect of this Convention,
there shall be a continuous close season on the following
migratory game birds, to wit:
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Band-tailed pigeons, little brown, sandhill and whooping
cranes, swans, curlew and all shorebirds (except the
black-breasted and golden plover, Wilson or jack snipe,
woodcock, and the greater and lesser yellowlegs); provided that
during such ten years the close seasons on cranes, swans and
curlew in the province of British Columbia shall be made by the
proper authorities of that province within the general dates and
limitations elsewhere prescribed in this Convention for the
respective groups to which these birds belong.
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The High Contracting Powers agree that special protection
shall be given the wood duck and the eider duck either (1) by a
close season extending over a period of at least five years, or (2)
by the establishment of refuges, or (3) by such other regulations
as may be deemed appropriate.
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The taking of nests or eggs of migratory game or insectivorous
or nongame birds shall be prohibited, except for scientific or
propagating purposes under such laws or regulations as the High
Contracting Powers may severally deem appropriate.
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The High Contracting Powers agree that the shipment or
export of migratory birds or their eggs from any state or province,
during the continuance of the close season in such state or
province, shall be prohibited except for scientific or propagating
purposes, and the international traffic in any birds or eggs at such
time captured, killed, taken, or shipped at any time contrary to the
laws of the state or province in which the same were captured,
killed, taken, or shipped shall be likewise prohibited. Every
package containing migratory birds or any parts thereof or any
eggs of migratory birds transported, or offered for transportation
from the Dominion of Canada into the United States or from the
United States into the Dominion of Canada, shall have the name
and address of the shipper and an accurate statement of the
contents clearly marked on the outside of such package.
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Permits to kill any of the above-named birds which, under
extraordinary conditions, may become seriously injurious to the
agricultural or other interests in any particular community, may
be issued by the proper authorities of the High Contracting
Powers under suitable regulations prescribed therefor by them
respectively, but such permits shall lapse or may be cancelled, at
any time when, in the opinion of said authorities, the particular
exigency has passed, and no birds killed under this article shall
be shipped, sold, or offered for sale.
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The High Contracting Powers agree themselves to take, or
propose to their respective appropriate law-making bodies, the
necessary measures for insuring the execution of the present
Convention.
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The present Convention shall be ratified by His Britannic
Majesty and by the President of the United States of America, by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof. The
ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as
possible and the Convention shall take effect on the date of the
exchange of the ratifications. It shall remain in force for fifteen
years, and in the event of neither of the High Contracting Powers
having given notification twelve months before the expiration of
said period of fifteen years, of its intention of terminating its
operation, the Convention shall continue to remain in force for
one year and so on from year to year.
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In faith whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed
the present Convention in duplicate and have hereunto affixed
their seals.
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Done at Washington this sixteenth day of August, 1916.
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[Here follow the signatures of Cecil Spring-Rice and Robert
Lansing.]
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