CHAP. n.J PIGEON LAW. 49 



passed in the second year of James I. enacts, " That 

 all and every person and persons, which from and after 

 the first day of August next (1604) following, shall 

 shoot at, kill, or destroy with any gun, cross-bow, stone- 

 bow, or long-bow, any Pheasant, Partridge, House-dove 

 or Pigeon, Hearn, Mallard, Duck, Teal, Widgeon, 

 Grouse, Heathcock, Moregame, or any such Fowl, or 

 any Hare, .... shall be by the said justices of 

 peace, for every such offence, committed to the common 

 gaol of the said county, city, or town corporate, where 

 the offence shall be committed, or the parties appre- 

 hended, there to remain for three months without bail 

 or mainprise, unless that the said offender do or shall 

 forthwith upon the said conviction, pay or cause to be 

 paid, to the churchwardens of the said parish where the 

 said offence shall be committed, or the parties appre- 

 hended, to the use of the poor of the said parish, the 

 sum of twenty shillings for every Pheasant, Partridge, 

 House-dove or Pigeon, Hearn, Mallard, Duck, Teal, 

 Widgeon, Grouse, Heathcock, Moregame or any such 

 Fowl, and for every egg of Pheasant, Partridge, or 

 Swans, and for every Hare, which any and every such 

 person and persons so offending and convicted as afore- 

 said, shall take, kill, or willingly destroy, contrary to the 

 true purport and true meaning of this statute," &c. 

 This law was enacted to reach " the vulgar sort, and men 

 of small worth, making a trade and a living of the spoil- 

 ing and destroying of the said games, who are not of 

 sufficiency to pay the said penalties in the said statutes 

 mentioned, nor to answer the costs and charges of any 

 that should inform and prosecute against them." 



Nor has time mitigated the penalty for such offences. 

 The 7th and 8th George IV., chap. 29, sec. 33, which 



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