428 THE GAME PRESERVER'S GUIDE. 



V. This act not to affect the existing laivs respecting game certifi- 

 cates. And be it enacted, that nothing in this act contained shall in any 

 wise affect or alter (except as hereinafter mentioned) any act or acts now 

 in force by which any person using any dog-, gun, net, or other engine for 

 the purpose of taking or killing any game whatever, or any woodcock, 



fully, and it was discovered that at no period between the 10th of 

 February and the 1st of October can live pheasants, nor between the 

 former date and the 1st of September can live partridges be sold, unless 

 the contract for their delivery had previously been made, this exception 

 having been ruled to be good in the case of Porritt v. Baker and another 

 (10 Ex. R 759). 



From this it clearly appears that the buying or selling is forbidden 

 under any circumstances during the close time ; but in the case cited 

 above it was held that if the agreement to sell is made during the season, 

 the delivery may be effected afterwards ; and fortunately in this case 

 there can be no probable evasion of the law, because one party to the 

 transaction is almost always a proprietor of game, whose evidence may 

 fairly be accepted as trustworthy. But the succeeding clause of the sec- 

 tion appears to throw some difficulty in the way of the unseasonable deli- 

 very of these birds so bargained for, since we find that the penalty is 

 enforced upon any person " who shall knowingly have in his house, pos- 



they leave one " mew or breeding-pl 

 another, or are turned out. It cannot be argued, and no attempt was 

 made to that effect before the Lord Mayor, that a hamper in a market- 

 place is a "mew or breeding-place," and hence we believe that the sale 

 of live birds of game is practically forbidden by the Act out of the season 

 during which the corresponding birds can be legally sold when dead. 



Such is the law of the case ; but it may be said that it is an unsatis- 

 factory law, and so it is alleged to be by the dealers who live upon its 

 profits, but by no good sportsman as far as I know. The facts really 

 are, that thousands, and probably tens of thousands of poached pheasants 

 are annually sold by such men. A profit of from 5s. to 10s. a brace is made 

 on them ; and this in " large contracts" is a pretty heavy fine for game 

 preservers to pay. Lazy keepers persuade their masters that the trade 

 is necessary, and sometimes connive at the sale to them of their own birds 

 previously stolen for the purpose. Such practices must be put down, and 

 the Association will deserve the thanks of the shooting community if 

 they will earnestly carry through their purpose so auspiciously com- 

 menced in the present year. There is plenty of time before the 10th of 

 February for the sale of old birds intended for turning out or laying, and 

 after the 30th of September for that of young ones which are to stock the 

 preserves for the current year. The breeder may lawfully keep these in 

 their proper breeding-places till then, and as few preservers shoot any but 

 their small outlying coverts (where tame-bred birds are never put down) till 

 the end of October, and most not until November, there is plenty of time in 

 the interval for the purpose. Even if some slight inconvenience is thereb 



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