90 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATER. 



from other enemies and take from them a part of their accumulated 

 stores. He is thus also enabled to capture the new swarms which are 

 produced, by following them as they take their flight. In this way the 

 art and industry of man may increase the stock of bees and the useful 

 food which they supply. The municipal laws of all nations therefore 

 declare that bees thus dealt with are property. Any one who destroys 

 them, even when away from the land of the owner, commits a wrong 

 for which the laws will afford full redress; and the right of property 

 remains even in respect to a swarm which takes its flight beyond the 

 boundaries of the owner, so long as he can identify and pursue it. It 

 would be manifestly impossible to protect that right any further. 

 There is no change effected in the nature of the bees by this action of 

 man. They are as wild as their fellows which have their homes in the 

 forest. Man simply avails himself of their natural instinct to accept a 

 suitable place for their home and storehouse. 



A similar instinct is possessed by pigeons which leads them and their 

 offspring to take up their abodes in places prepared for them by man. 

 They may be first wonted to it by confinement, or attracted by feeding; 

 but when they have adopted it, if protected against enemies and cher- 

 ished with care, their number may be greatly multiplied, and by judi- 

 cious drafts upon the increase a delicate food may be procured in con- 

 siderable quantities. There is in the case of these animals a difficulty 

 in securing to individual owners all the remedial rights which protect 

 property arising out of the tendency of flocks to commingle, and the 

 impossibility of identification. But, in spite of this, in the opinion of 

 many jurists, they are to be deemed property. The obvious ground is 

 the social benefit which may be secured by offering to this art and 

 industry its natural reward, and thus encourage the practice of it. 

 Without such encouragement society would lose the benefit it receives 

 from this animal. 



There is a like opportunity to take advantage of the instincts of wild 

 animals, and thus gain over them a power which makes them subservi- 

 ent to the wants of man in the case of wild geese and swans. These also 

 may be made wonted to a particular place, from which they will widely 

 wander over waters belonging to different owners, or to the state, but 

 to which they will habitually return, and where they will rear their 

 young. They thus submit themselves voluntarily to the power of man, 

 and afford him a control over them which enables him at once to pre- 

 serve the stock and take the increase. On these grounds a right of 



