16 U.S.C. § 701
Section 701 · Game and wild birds; preservation
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 30 court decisions — leading case County of Suffolk v. Secretary of Interior (1977)
Most recently applied in Turtle Island Restoration Network v. United States Department of Commerce (December 2017)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The duties and powers of the Department of the Interior include the preservation, distribution, introduction, and restoration of game birds and other wild birds. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to adopt such measures as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act, and to purchase such game birds and other wild birds as may be required therefor, subject, however, to the laws of the various States and Territories. The object and purpose of this Act is to aid in the restoration of such birds in those parts of the United States adapted thereto where the same have become scarce or extinct, and also to regulate the introduction of American or foreign birds or animals in localities where they have not heretofore existed.
The Secretary of the Interior shall from time to time collect and publish useful information as to the propagation, uses, and preservation of such birds.
And the Secretary of the Interior shall make and publish all needful rules and regulations for carrying out the purposes of this Act, and shall expend for said purposes such sums as Congress may appropriate therefor.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
This Act, referred to in text, is act May 25, 1900, section 1 of which is classified to this section. Sections 2 to 4 of the Act were repealed and restated by sections 241 to 244 of the Criminal Code of 1909 (approved Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321) which were classified to sections 391 to 394 of former Title 18. Such sections were subsequently repealed and reenacted as sections 42 to 44 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure. Section 5 of the Act which was classified to section 667e of this title was repealed by Pub. L. 97–79, §9(b)(2), Nov. 16, 1981, 95 Stat. 1079.
Transfer of Functions
Reorg. Plan No. II of 1939, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees, transferred functions of Secretary of Agriculture relating to conservation of wildlife, game, and migratory birds to Secretary of the Interior.