204 PROTECTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



royal and general wild-fowl protection. In the former case, 

 the protection was, as might be expected, an absolute protec- 

 tion enforced by the severest penalties, while in the latter, 

 less stringent measures were considered sufficient. These 

 measures took different forms, and seem to have been graded 

 according to the scarcity or otherwise of particular birds at 

 particular periods. 



At one time nests were protected, and the eggs of 

 Partridges or Wild Ducks were forbidden to be taken, under 

 a penalty of 40^. (1474). At another time the young birds, 

 "pouts" of Partridges or of Moor-fowl (Grouse), were exempt 

 from destruction (1599, 1600, 1685), or the old birds were to 

 be spared during the moulting season (1457). But perhaps 

 the method most frequently adopted was that now universal in 

 the case of game birds, the fixing of definite "close seasons," 

 when wild-fowl could neither be killed, sold, bought or eaten 

 without incurring penalties of various degree, from a paltry 

 40.?. to a prohibitive fine of ^100. 



It is hard to estimate the actual effect of these measures 

 upon the numbers of wild-fowl, but the constant repetition 

 of the old, and the appearance of new laws throughout 

 the centuries, leads one to suspect that the Statutes were 

 honoured as much in the breach as in the observance. Even 

 after two centuries and more of legal protection, Moor- 

 fowls or Grouse, a Statute of 1682 states, were so much 

 destroyed that there was fear of their total decay, and they 

 were accordingly prohibited from being bought or sold for 

 seven years under a penalty of ^100 to be incurred as well 

 by the buyer as the seller. Recourse was again had to this ex- 

 pedient a few years later when, owing to Moor-fowls being so 

 "decayed, "they were in 1698 absolutely protected for another 

 seven years. Nevertheless, if in spite of their general 

 inefficiency, the laws saved some of the birds of the moors 

 and marshes from the sorry fate of extinction which overtook 

 the Bittern and the Bustard in Scotland, they did good 

 service on behalf of our native fauna. 



MODERN GAME BIRDS 



The measures adopted in more recent times for the, 

 protection of game birds in Scotland differ in one important 

 respect from those of early days. Formerly the wildness of 



