Relief from the operation of one set of privileges, neither strictly pecuniary nor entirely honorific, was almost unanimously demanded by the farmers. These were the rights of the nobles concerning the preservation of game, and the cognate right of keeping pigeons. The country-folk speak of doves as "the scourge of laborers," and ask that they may be destroyed, or at least shut up during seed-time and harvest. One gentleman answers with the remonstrance that, being very warm, they are used in medicine, but that sparrows devour every year a bushel of grain apiece, and that each village should be obliged to kill a certain quantity of them. The peasants ask that wild boars and rabbits be alike destroyed. The royal preserves are particularly hated by all the agricultural population living near Paris. Land naturally of the first class is said to be made almost worthless by the abundance of the game. The hare feeds on the tender shoots of the growing grain. The partridge half destroys the wheat. Rabbits and other vermin browse on the vines, fruit-trees, and vegetables. Farmers are not allowed to destroy weeds for fear of disturbing game. Mounted keepers ride all over the fields, trampling down the crops. The king is begged to reduce his preserves, in so far as he can do so without interfering with his own amusement, or even to suppress them altogether.[Footnote: _T._, Pecqueuse (Paris, _extra muros_), _A. P._, v. 11, Section 36. _T._, Alençon, _A. P._, i. 719, ch. viii. Section 3. Exmes, _A. P._, i. 728, Sections 20, 21. Verneuil, _A. P._, i. 731, Section 44. Seigneur de Pierrefitte, _A. P._, v. 19, Section 16. Port au Pecq (Paris, _ex. m._), _A. P._, v. 12, Section 18. Plaisir (Paris, _ex. m._) _A. P._ v. 25. Amont-Gray, _A. P._, i. 780. Périgny en Brie (Paris, _ex. m._) _A. P._, v. 14, Sections 5-11, and many others.]