HEATH-FOWL
—are a species of GROUSE, (passing under the denomination of BLACK GAME,) of which there are different sorts, individually expressed in the various acts of successive Parliaments for the preservation of the game; as "GROUSE, HEATH-COCK, MOOR-GAME, or any such fowl." To prevent the general destruction that must evidently follow, if game of this description was pursued and taken at all seasons of the year without restraint, the Legislature has wisely provided a remedy by the following prohibition, exclusive of the penalties annexed to other Acts for killing without the necessary qualifications.
By the 13th George Third, c. lv. s. 2, No person shall kill, destroy, carry, sell, buy, or have in his possession, any HEATH-FOWL, commonly called black game, between the tenth day of December and the twentieth day of August; nor any GROUSE, commonly called red game, between the tenth day of December and the twelfth day of August; nor any BUSTARD between the first day of March and the first day of September, in any year, upon pain of forfeiting, for the FIRST OFFENCE, a sum not exceeding TWENTY, nor less than ten pounds; and for the SECOND, and every subsequent offence, a sum not exceeding THIRTY, nor less than twenty pounds: One moiety thereof to go to the INFORMER, the other to the poor of the parish.