Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!cb2w+ From: cb2w+@andrew.cmu.edu (Christopher Waldemar Bochna) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: How do I preserve the skeleton of a dead bird? Message-ID: Date: 17 Jan 91 08:06:21 GMT References: <8483@pbhyf.PacBell.COM> <1991Jan10.184641.3350@granite.cr.bull.com> <1991Jan10.224737.15775@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu>, <9970@adobe.UUCP> Distribution: usa Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 57 In-Reply-To: <9970@adobe.UUCP> In article <9970@adobe.UUCP> dkletter@adobe.COM (SUGAR in their vitamins?) writes: >this doesn't make much sense to me since there is a nifty little shop >in the Haight that sells all kinds of skeletons. the only skeleton that >i'm aware of being illegal to own is the skull of a homo sapien. and i >think the reason for that is because people used to go into graveyards >and dig up remains to resell for big bucks. perhaps this legislation is >in your state only? i'd be curious to find out more information on this >if someone can provide. Well, after a quick look see in the Code of Federal Regulations, I dug this up. 50 CFR 21.11 : "No person shall take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such bird except as may be permitted under the terms of a valid permit isued pursuant to the provisions of this part and part 13, or as permitted by regulations in this part or part 20 (the hunting regulations). If you wish to have the formal definitions of some of the terms, here they are: 50 CFR 10.12 : ..."'Migratory Bird' means any bird, whatever its origin and whether or not raised in captivity, which belongs to a species in [part] 10.13, or which is a mutation or a hybrid of any such species, including any part, nest, or egg of any such bird, or any product, whether or not manufactured, which consists, or is composed in whole or part, of any such bird or any part, nest, or egg thereof. "'Permit' means any document designated as a 'permit', 'license', 'certificate', or any other document by the [U.S. Fish and Wildlife] Service to authorize, limit, or describe activity and signed by an authorized official of the Service. "'Person' means any individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, club, or private body, any one or all, as the context requires. "'Possession' means the detention and control, or the manual or ideal custody of anything which may be the subject of property, for one's use and enjoyment, wither as owner or as a proprietor of a qualified right in it, and either held personally or by another who exercises it in one's place and name. Possession includes the act or state of possessing and that condition of facts under which one can exercise his power over a corporeal thing at his pleasure to the exclusion of all other persons. Possessin includes constructive possession which means not actual but assumed to exist, where one claims to hold by virtue of some title without having actual custody. "'Take' means to pursue, hurt, shoot, would, trap, capture, collect, or attempt to pursue, hurt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect..." The list of migratory birds listed in 50 CFR 10.13 is quite long and covers almost all birds seen in the wild in the U.S. The 3 birds I can think of that are not covered are rock doves, european starlings, and house sparrows. If you wish to have the penalties for violating these regulations, I'll dig up the necessary text.