THE ZooLoGist—JULy, 1872. 3139 
A Bill for the Protection of Wild Fowl during the Breeding 
Season. 
{I have delayed printing this Bill for several months, expecting to have 
been able to speak of it as an “ Act” instead of a “ Bill”: it has been read 
a second time, but may perhaps be altered slightly in Committee or in the 
House of Lords.—Hdward Newman.] 
Wuereas the wild fowl of the United Kingdom, forming a staple 
article of food and commerce, have of late years greatly decreased 
in number; it is expedient therefore to provide for their protection 
during the breeding-season : 
Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 
and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the 
authority of the same: 
1, That the words “ wild fowl” shall for all the purposes of this 
Act be deemed to include the different species of avocet, curlew, 
dotterel, dunbird, dunlin, godwit, greenshank, lapwing, oxbird, 
peewit, phalarope, plover, plover’s-page, pochard, purre, mallard, 
redshank, reeve or ruff, sanderling, sandpiper, sealark, shoveller, 
snipe, spoonbill, stint, stone-curlew, stonehatch, summer-snipe, 
teal, thick-knee, whaup, whimbrel, widgeon, wild duck, and wood- 
cock; the word “sheriff” shall include steward and also sheriff 
substitute and steward substitute. 
2. Any person who shall kill, wound, or attempt to kill or wound 
or take any wild fowl, or use any boat, gun, net, or other engine or 
instrument for the purpose of killing, wounding, or taking any wild 
fowl, or shall have in his control or possession any wild fowl recently 
killed, wounded, or taken, between the jirst day of April and the 
Jirst day of August in any year shall, on conviction of any such 
offence before any justice or justices of the peace in England or 
Ireland, or before the sheriff or any justice or justices of the peace 
in Scotland, forfeit and pay for every such wild fowl so killed, 
wounded, or taken, or so in his possession, such sum of money not 
exceeding one pound as to the said justices or sheriff shall seem 
meet, together with the costs of the conviction, unless he shall 
_ prove to the satisfaction of the said justice or sheriff that the said 
wild fowl was or were bought or received prior to the said first day 
of April, or of or from some person or persons residing out of the 
