Dovecot

Dovecot. The right of erecting and keeping dovecots was in England formerly a privilege of manors, and was rigorously protected by law; but such exceptional privileges have long been abolished. It is enacted by the Scottish statute 1617, chap. 19, still in observance, that no person shall build a dovecot or pigeon-house, either in town or country, unless he be possessed of lands or teinds of the yearly value of ten chalders of victual, lying within at least two miles of it. No person having such qualification shall build more than one dovecot within the 'bounds foresaid.' Dovecot breakers are guilty of theft; and under a rigorous Act of 1579, a third offence of dovecot breaking was capitally punishable. See Rankine On Landownership, p. 129 (1884).