MEDIEVAL BIRD LAWS. 27 



like * so that if the said Crows, Rooks, and 

 Choughs should be suflFered to breed and con- 

 tinue as they have been in certain years past 

 they will undoubtedly be the cause of a great 

 destruction and consumption of a great part of 

 the corn and grain which hereafter shall be 

 sown throughout this realm, to the great pre- 

 judice, damage, and undoing of the tillers, 

 husbanders, and sowers of the earth, within 

 the same. 



Then the Act prescribes the remedies. It orders 

 that every 'owner and occupier of land should do as 

 much as in him lay to kill and utterly destroy all 

 Choughs, Crows, and Rooks coming, abiding, breed- 

 ing, or haunting on his lands on pain of a grievous 

 amerciament. 



Numerous other provisions were also made for 

 their destruction. 



The inhabitants of every parish were bound for 

 the next ten years to provide and set nets in which 

 to capture the birds, and were made liable to a heavy 

 fine of ten shillings for every day that such nets 

 were wanting. 



* Probably on account of the grain having been only partly 

 threshed out of the straw, and so the birds pulled the thatch 

 to pieces in searching for food. 



