300 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



the shootings tinder their control by public auction for a 

 period of at least three years. 



Every landowner holding a compact estate of at 

 least two hundred acres, is allowed the free independent 

 exercise of his rights in regard to preserving and killing 

 game. 



Regulations for protecting Game. 



Besides the special laws against poaching, the game law 

 provides : 



1. That no game shall be killed or offered for sale 

 between the 2nd of February and the 23rd of August, with 

 the exception of wild boar, stags, roebucks, capercailzie, 

 blackcocks, rabbits, and birds of passage. 



2. An offence against the above is punishable by a fine 

 of from five to twenty florins. Selling game out of season, 

 stealing or wilfully destroying eggs or young birds, is punish- 

 able by a fine not exceeding ten florins. 



From what has been already said, it will be seen that not 

 only are the rights of landowners and sportsmen respected, 

 as far as possible consistently with the public interests, but 

 that the farmers are also protected against undue injury 

 to their crops from over preserving. Wherever the head 

 of game is proved to be excessive, the authorities may inter- 

 fere and insist on its being reduced. There is consequently 

 no ground in this country for regarding poaching as a venial 

 offence, as if it were the natural result of arbitrary or 

 oppressive laws. The actual degree of criminality to be 

 attached to offences under the game laws is, nevertheless, 

 viewed as a question not so easily determined, and as 

 depending on various considerations. 



Pursuing game with a gun on the land of others, without 

 the knowledge or consent of the owner or his representatives 

 (" Wilderei "), is punishable, according to circumstances, by 

 imprisonment varying from fourteen days to four months. 



The time when the offence was committed, whether day 



