26 MEDIEVAL BIRD LAWS. 



to human life, and the struggle between man and 

 the lower animals was therefore confined to those 

 smaller creatures from which he could entertain no 

 personal fears, but which were believed to be 

 injurious to him in a minor degree. 



So the era of the Forest Law.s of a former age 

 was succeeded by that of the laws for the protec- 

 tion of grain and the extermination of the so-called 

 vermin which man found to be in his way. 



It was in the reign of Heniy VIII. that these 

 Acts w^ere first passed, Crows, Choughs, and Rooks 

 being the first creatures against which statutes were 

 promulgated. 



In tlie year 1533 was passed an "Act to destroy 

 Crows, Choughs, and Rooks" (24 Hen. VIII., c. 10), 

 the preamble of which set forth that 



Forasmuch as innumerable numbers of Rooks, 

 Crows, and Choughs do yearly destroy, devour, 

 and consume a wonderful and marvellous great 

 (juantity of corn and grain of all kinds; tliat 

 is to wit, as well in the sowing of the same 

 grain and corn, <xs also at the ripening and tlie 

 kernelling of the same, and do make a marvel- 

 lous destruction and decay of the coverture of 

 thatched houses, barns, reeks, and (~)tlier sucli 



