In Which Crimes Against Both Humanity and Livestock are Regaled for One's Lazy Thursday Perusal
In days of yore upon the Isle of Albion, the scourge of Bird-Swindlers wreaked havoc on hopeful gift-givers, whether they be for one's nephew's saints day celebration, a way of apology to one's spouse, or for sly seduction of a fair serving wench. The occupation of Bird-Swindler involved ensnaring some local common English avian, something along the lines of a Finch or Sparrow, and then with the aids of scissors, dyes, and modified prosthetic feathers, modifying the appearance of the bird in such a way as to trick potential customers into believing that they have in front of them some rare breed of The Bird of Paradise itself. Bird-swindlery was far from the only animal related crime in England at the time, a perusal of court dockets from the past reveals numerous and original malfeasances such as fox riggery, selling a man oats intended for cattle, calculating the horoscope of an ass, wasp divination, impersonating the cry of a cuckoo, poaching the queen's cod, and introducing an eel into the anus of a horse.
