[39 & 40 Vict., Chapt. 29.]
An Act for the Preservation of Wild Fowl.
[24th July, 1876.]
Whereas the wild fowl of the United Kingdom, forming a staple article of food and commerce, have of late years greatly decreased in number by reason of their being inconsiderately slaughtered during the time that they have eggs and young; and whereas, owing to their marketable value, the protection accorded to them by the Act of the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter seventy-eight, intituled "An Act for the protection of certain wild birds during the breeding season," is insufficient; it is expedient therefore to provide for their further 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, as follows:—
1. The words "wild fowl" shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to include the different species of Avocet, Curlew, Dotterel, Dunbird, Dunlin, Godwit, Greenshank, Lapwing, Mallard, Oxbird, Peewit, Phalarope, Plover, Plover's Page, Pochard, Purre, Redshank, Reeve or Ruff, Sanderling, Sandpiper, Sea Lark, Shoveller, Snipe, Spoonbill, Stint, Stone Curlew, Stonehatch, Summer Snipe, Teal, Thick-knee, Whaup, Whimbrel, Wigeon, Wild Duck, Wild Goose, and Woodcock; 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 fifteenth day of February and the tenth day of July 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.
