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Hunting License
Hunting License, 1906-1907
oil cloth, six inches square
Illinois State Museum Collection
Gift of Frances Bridgewater, Sandwich, Illinois
Zoom in on Hunting License

The hunting license shown here was issued to W. C. Bridgewater at Coffeen, in Montgomery County, Illinois, made of oil cloth, it could be folded into one's pocket, was red for ease of finding and identification, was waterproof, and contained the age, weight, height, and eye and hair color of the licensee, to discourage sharing.

Following is the text printed pn the back of the license, hunting regulations in force in 1906, which included the beginning and end dates of each season (fall and spring) and which species were legal to hunt. It also listed illegal methods of hunting. The rules in bold type highlight those aimed at curtailing market hunting.


You can hunt and kill quail with gun only between November 10th and December 20th each year.
You must not kill any prairie chicken or grouse for a period of four years from the 1st of July, 1903.
You must not net trap or ensnare quail or prairie chicken at any time under any circumstances.
You can kill woodcock and mourning doves only between August 1st and December 31st of each year.
You can kill gray, red fox or black squirrels only between July 1st and December 31st of each year.

You can kill all kinds of snipe and plover only between September 1st and May 1st of each succeeding year.
You can kill wild geese, ducks, and brant and other waterfowl only between September 1st and April 15th of each succeeding year.
You must not kill wild geese, duck, or brant or other waterfowl from any steamboat, sailboat, electric or gasoline launch, or from any sink boat, box, or sneak boat or artificial blind in the OPEN waters of this state.

You must...(illegible)... willows, brush, wild rice or other vegetation, but not in the open waters.
You must not kill wild geese, ducks, brant, quail, prairie chicken, grouse, or squirrel for market or commercial purpose.

You must not have in possession for the purpose of selling or transport for the purpose of sale, any wild geese, ducks, brant, quail, prairie chicken, grouse, or squirrel that has been killed in the state of Illinois.
You must not at any time kill more than 35 ducks, geese, or brant, or more that twenty-five quail or game birds of any other kind in one day.

You must not kill, expose or offer for sale or have in possession, except for breeding purposes, any buck, doe, or fawn for a period of ten years from July 1st, 1903.
You must not kill, expose or offer for sale or have in possession, except for breeding purposes, any wild turkey, pheasant, or partridge of any kind for a period of five years from July 1st, 1903.

You must not kill, catch, or have in possession, living or dead, any wild bird, or part of bird, other than a game bird, except English sparrow, crow, crow-blackbird, or chicken hawk, and you must not purchase or expose such bird for sale.
You must not destroy or remove from the nests the eggs of any prairie chicken, grouse, quail, wild turkey, duck, goose or brant, or song birds.
You can kill for commercial purposes and transport for sale or market all kinds of snipe, plover, mourning doves, and rabbits.
You must not offer for sale or transport for the purpose of selling, any snipe or plover or mourning doves after the expiration of five days next succeeding the first day of the closed season, nor can you sell the same during the first two days of the open season.
Inhabitants of the State can receive game coming from other states where it is lawful to kill and ship out of such state and expose and sell on the market in said villages and cities such game between the 1st day of October and the 1st day of February of the following year.
All license, whether resident or non-resident, expire on the first day of June of each year.
You must not use, or attempt to use, the license of another person, or in any manner make any changes in any license for the purpose of transferring the same, under penalty ...(illegible)... for forgery.
Owners of farms, and their children or tenants, can hunt and kill game on their own farms during the open season when it is lawful to kill game, without procuring such resident license, but they must not hunt beyond the lines of their own farm lands without a hunter's license.
You must not use any ferret at any time, or under any circumstances for the purpose of hunting, capturing or killing any game animals or rabbits in this State.
N.B. Remember that the title to and ownership of all birds and game in the State is declared to be in the State. See Section 11 of the Game Law.

JOHN A. WHEELER
State Game Commissioner,
Springfield, Ill.

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