Any employee of the Department of the Interior authorized by the Secretary of the Interior to enforce the provisions of sections 690 to 690i of this title (1) shall have power, without warrant, to arrest any person committing in the presence of such employee a violation of sections 690 to 690i of this title or of any regulation made pursuant thereto, and to take such person immediately for examination or trial before an officer or court of competent jurisdiction, and (2) shall have power to execute any warrant or other process issued by an officer or court of competent jurisdiction to enforce the provisions of said sections or regulations made pursuant thereto. Any judge of a court established under the laws of the United States, or any United States magistrate judge may, within his respective jurisdiction, upon proper oath or affirmation showing probable cause, issue warrants in all such cases.

All birds or animals, or parts thereof, captured, injured, or killed, and all grass and other natural growths, and nests and eggs of birds removed contrary to the provisions of sections 690 to 690i of this title or any regulation made pursuant thereto, shall, when found by such employee or by any marshal or deputy marshal, be summarily seized by him, and upon conviction of the offender or upon judgment of a court of the United States that the same were captured, killed, taken, or removed contrary to the provisions of sections 690 to 690i of this title or of any regulation made pursuant thereto, shall be forfeited to the United States and disposed of as directed by the Secretary of the Interior, in accordance with law.

(Apr. 23, 1928, ch. 413, § 6, 45 Stat. 449; 1939 Reorg. Plan No. II, § 4(f), eff. July 1, 1939, 4 F.R. 2731, 53 Stat. 1433; Pub. L. 90–578, title IV, § 402(b)(2), Oct. 17, 1968, 82 Stat. 1118; Pub. L. 95–616, § 3(g), Nov. 8, 1978, 92 Stat. 3111; Pub. L. 101–650, title III, § 321, Dec. 1, 1990, 104 Stat. 5117.)