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Chapter XXIII
Wild Animals, Fish, Etc., Of Delaware County.
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sufficient to discharge these pressing demands. At the court held at Chester, the 3d day of 1st week, Tenth month, 1687, it was "Ordered that Warrants be Directed to ye respective Constables of each Township in this county for raising of a levy to be used towards ye destroying Wolves and other Hurtful Vermin, as follows, viz.: For all lands taken up and inhabited one shilling for every hundred acres; for all Lands taken up by non-residents and so remaining unoccupied eighteen pence for every hundred acres; All freemen from sixteen years of age to sixty, one shilling; All servants, soe qualified, six pence." This order did not secure the sum necessary to keep the county and the wolf-hunters square in their accounts, so that on the 6th day of 1st week, Tenth month, 1688, "The Grand Inquest doe alsoe allow of ye Tax for ye wolves' heads and that Power be forthwith Issued forth to Compel those to pay that are behind in their arrears, And that receipts and disbursements thereof be made to ye grand Inquest at ye next County Court." But this action of the grand jury did not result as desired, so that Oct. 2, 1695, the grand inquest reported that the county was in debt, not only on account of the prison, which was not completed, but that "there were several wolves' heads to pay for," and they therefore levied a tax of one pence per pound on personal and real estate and three pence poll-tax. The jury also gave the rule by which the valuation should be made thus: "All cleared land under tillage to be assessed at 20 shillings per acre; rough lands near river £10 per hundred acres; land in woods" (that is, uncultivated land on which no settlement had been made), "£5 per hundred acres; horses and mares at £3; cows and oxen at 50 shillings; sheep 6s.; negro male slaves from sixteen to sixty years of age at £25, and females at £20. Chester Mills (at Upland) £100; Joseph Cochran's mill (where Dutton's now is), £50; Darby Mill, £100; Haverford Mills (on Cobb's Creek), £20; Concord Mills (now Leedom's), £50," and all tavern-keepers were assessed at twenty pounds. This is the last mention I find of wolves as forming the subject of a grand jury's action in our county annals, but many bills are on file in the commissioner's office, in West Chester, for the wolf bounty.
In 1705 the constantly-increasing flocks of sheep caused the wolves to venture nearer the settlement to prey on those domestic animals; hence, in 1705, the law was changed, so that if any person would undertake as an occupation to kill wolves, devoting three days at least in each week to that pursuit, and entering into recognizance at the County Courts to that effect, such person was entitled to receive twenty-five shillings for every head he brought in. This was not extravagant when we remember that at Germantown as late as 1724 wolves were reported as often heard howling at nights, while in 1707 they approached so closely to the settled parts of Philadelphia as to render the raising of sheep a precarious business. By the act of March 20, 1724/5, the Assembly provides the following rewards for killing wolves and red foxes: For every grown dog or bitch wolf, 15s.; for every wolf puppy or whelp, 7s. 6d.; for every old red fox, 2s., and for every young red fox or whelp, 1s. I do not know whether the reward for killing foxes was ever repealed, for the accounts in the commissioner's office at Media show that on Second month 12, 1791, James Jones was paid 13s. 6d. for fox scalps. These animals were very numerous in the last century, for William Mode, heretofore mentioned, stated that in his early days foxes carried off their poultry, and "on one occasion a man threshing espied one in the evening coming towards the barn, lay in ambush with a club, with which he knocked it over and killed it."1 The smaller animals, such as squirrels, raccoons, and "that strange animal the 'possum,'" as Gabriel Thomas calls them, "she having a false belly to swallow her young ones, by which means she preserves them from danger when anything comes to disturb them," were numerous. In the year 1749, we are told by Kalm, six hundred and forty thousand black and gray squirrels were shot, the bounty paid in the several counties that year amounting to eight thousand pounds at three pence a head. The drain was so great on the county treasuries that the premium was reduced one-half. Great numbers of pheasants and partridges were found in all sections of the county, while wild turkeys in winter were often seen in flocks in the corn and buckwheat-fields feeding, and Mr. Worrall could well remember when there were great quantities of wild turkeys. The latter related that he once saw a flight of pigeons which lasted two days. "They flew in such immense flocks as to obscure for a considerable time the rays of the sun. Thomas Coburn, Caleb Harrison, and Peter Heston went out at night in Martin's Bottom, and they told him (Worrall) that when they were in the woods where the pigeons roosted the noise was so great that they could not hear each other speak. On viewing the place the next morning, they found large limbs of the trees broken off from the immense weight and pressure of the lodgers." About the time of Penn's coming the wild pigeons flew in such masses "that the air was sometimes darkened," and, flying low, great numbers were knocked down with sticks by those person, who had no firearms. The birds not immediately used were salted down for future consumption. | 1 Statement of William Mode in 1824, Village Record, West Chester, Pa. | ||
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The act of 1700, offering a reward for killing blackbirds and crows, states in its preamble that "by the innumerable quantities of blackbirds and crows that continually haunt in this province and territories, to the great prejudice, hurt, and annoyance of the inhabitants thereof, being very destructive to all sorts of corn and grain that is raised therein, so that people's labor is much destroyed thereby," a reward of three | |||