Sea Birds Preservation Act 1869
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1869 c. 17 |
| Year | 1869 |
Sea Birds Preservation Act, 1869
(32 & 33 Vict.) CHAP. 17.
An Act for the Preservation of Sea Birds.
[24th June 1869]
Whereas the sea birds of the United Kingdom 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 Definition or terms.
1. That the words ‘sea birds’ shall for all the purposes of this Act be deemed to include the different species of auk, bonxie, Cornish chough, coulterneb, diver, eider duck, fulmar, gannet, grebe, guillemot, gull, kittiwake, loon, marrot, merganser, murre, oyster catcher, petrel, puffin, razor bill, scout, seamew, sea parrot, sea swallow, shearwater, shelldrake, skua, smew, solan goose, tarrock, tern, tystey, and willock; the word ‘sheriff’ shall include steward and also sheriff substitute and steward substitute.
2 Season during which sea birds shall not be killed.
2. Any person who shall kill, wound, or attempt to kill or wound, or take any sea bird, or use any boat, gun, net, or other engine or instrument for the purpose of killing, wounding, or taking any sea bird, or shall have in his control or possession any sea bird recently killed, wounded, or taken, between the first day of April and the first 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 sea bird 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; provided always, that this section shall not apply where the said sea bird is a young bird unable to fly.
3 Home Office, &c. on application of justices, may vary such period.
3. The Home Office as to Great Britain, and the Lord Lieutenant as to Ireland, may, upon application of the justices in quarter sessions assembled of any county on the sea coast, extend or vary the time during which the killing, wounding, and taking of sea birds is prohibited by...
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