309 



Any person who shall shoot, or destroy in any manner, any 

 pigeon, shall on conviction before two justices, on the oath of 

 two witnesses, be committed to gaol for three months ; or pay 

 for the use of the poor twenty shillings for every pigeon ; or, 

 within one month after commitment, find sureties not to offend 

 again. 



However, by 2 Geo. IL c. 29. one witness and one justice are 

 sufficient : to forfeit twenty shillings to the person who prose- 

 cutes, or be committed to the house of correction and kept to 

 hard labour for any term not exceeding three calendar months or 

 less than one. Notwithstanding, a man has a right to shoot 

 any pigeons he may find destroying his corn. 



A very severe statute was passed in 1816. It runs thus : 

 Whereas, the laws now in force having been found insufficient 

 to prevent idle and disorderly persons from going out armed in 

 the night-time, for the destruction of game : And whereas such 

 practices are found, by experience, to lead to the commission of 

 felonies and murders : For the more effectual suppression thereof, 

 it is enacted, that if any person or persons shall unlawfully enter 

 into, or be unlawfully found in, any forest, chase, park, wood, 

 plantation, close, or other open or inclosed grounds, in the night 

 time, that is to say, between the hours of eight of the clock at 

 night and seven in the morning, from the 1st day of October to 

 the 1st day of March, or between the hours of ten at night aad 



