PROTECTION OF ANIMALS FOR UTILITY 217 



on the rocks and from the sands, and when, in spite of all 

 efforts, many died of want. Such recurrences probably first 

 turned the attention of our legislators to the need of supervis- 

 ing the wild stock of the country with a view to future food 

 supplies. Thus alongside protection of game birds from the 

 sporting point of view grew protection of wild fowl from a 

 utilitarian standpoint. 



In an Act passed in 1457, in the reign of James II, pro- 

 vision was specifically made for such wild fowl "as ganis 

 to eit for the sustentacion of man, as pertrykes, pluvars, 

 wilde dukes and sik lik fowlys." Of these neither the nests 

 nor eggs were to be taken or destroyed, nor were the birds 

 themselves to be killed in moulting time. Further, that the 

 stock of wild fowl should be still more augmented, the same 

 Act provided for the destruction of "foulys of reif," or birds 

 of prey in a wide sense, such being "ruikes, crawes, eirnes 1 , 

 bissettes 2 , gleddes 3 , mittalles 4 , the whilk destroyes beast, 

 corne, and wilde foulys." Great efforts were to be made to 

 keep these destroyers in check, for they "sail utterly be 

 destroyed by all manner of men, be all engine 5 of all manner 

 of crafts that may be founden" since "the slauchter of them 

 sail cause great multitude of divers kind of wilde foulys for 

 man's sustentacion." 



In the sixteenth century there were also passed Acts for 

 "staunching dearth" which provided for the preservation 

 of "hart, hinde, dae, rae, haires, cunninges, and utheris 

 beasts." The many statutes protecting the inhabitants of 

 the dovecot, the "dows" and their "dowcattes," of which a 

 summary has already been given (p. 98) were also clearly- 

 devised for the increase of food supply, although the supply 

 was primarily intended for the table of the laird. 



FISHES OF FRESH WATERS 



Ranking almost in importance with the preservation of 

 game is the protection which has been given to the more 

 valuable fishes of our fresh waters, Salmon and Trout. The 

 details of the protective measures vary for almost every 

 great river, and it would serve no useful purpose to discuss 

 them here, but in the main they follow several wide principles. 



1 Eagles. 2 Buzzards. 3 Kites. 4 "A kind of halk" Jamieson. 

 r ' Ingenuity. 



