GAME-LAWS 





as a valuable food provision. Tlii- condition li.nl 

 already been reached in England with n-^.-ml to 

 l>iils and quadrupeds \\ hen tin- KOM-I Laws were 

 HIM promulgated, l>ut tin- economic as superior to 

 tin- sporting value of I'n-sli. water h'sli long held it-^ 

 ground, and indeed still does so to a certain extent 

 in the caM- of -nine of the larger rivers. Notwith- 

 standing, however, the small value of game as an 

 of food in proportion to its value as an 

 object of sport, there is Mill a utilitarian instinct in 

 the pursuit of many kinds of game ; the edibility of 

 the animal is a condition of the enjoyment of 

 sport ; nothing grieves a sportsman more than to 

 lo>e an animal he h;us killed ; and no sportsman 

 \\niild go out to nhoot old rooks or hlockhirdH, 

 although ilir-c would supply just as difficult 

 .-hooting as partridges and pheasants. 



I Is the common law, l>oth of England and of 

 Scotland, following that of Home, wild animals in 

 a state of nature are common to mankind, and are 

 not proper subjects of private ownership. But at 

 an early stage it was recognised that a free right of 

 hunting was incompatible with the preservation of 

 game in such numbers as to afford ample sport to 

 the monarch and the nobles. Accordingly a series 

 of laws known as the Forest Laws (q.v. ) were 

 enacted, whereby certain districts of country were 

 set apart for sport to the sovereign and his donees ; 

 and effective provision was made to reserve the 

 exclusive right of pursuing game within the pro- 

 tected areas. But the increase of population and 

 the enclosure of large parts of the country rendered 

 protection necessary for the areas outside of the 

 royal forests if the game was not to be totally 

 extirpated, and the result has been a series of 

 enactments known as the Game-laws. 



' Game ' includes hares, pheasants, partridges, 

 grouse, black-game, ptarmigan, and bustards. But, 

 in addition, there are a number of animals to which 

 one or other of the game-statutes extends pro- 

 tection. These are rabbits, deer, roe, woodcock, 

 snipe, quail, landrails, and wild duck. 



Although there is no private property in wild 

 animals, it is now fixed partly by statute, partly by 

 consuetudinary law as interpreted by the decisions 

 of the courts, that the right to pursue or take game 

 is a private privilege. In the absence of express 

 stipulation this privilege belongs in England to 

 the occupier, in Scotland to the owner of the soil. 

 It has sometimes been represented that, although 

 a wild animal is not private property, the moment 

 it is taken or slain it becomes the property of the 

 person on whose land it is taken or slain. This is 

 not strictly accurate, for if it were so then the 

 poacher who picks up the partridge he has shot 

 would be guilty of theft, which in the present 

 state of the law he certainly is not. On the other 

 hand, there is no doubt that the occupier or owner 

 of the soil is entitled to recover the game from the 

 poacher. The law, therefore, would seem to be 

 must accurately expressed by the statement that 

 the occupier or owner of the soil has a right to 

 claim any game taken or slain upon his land. 



The statutory provisions with reference to game 

 are of four kinds viz. (1 ) laws for the punishment 

 of poaching ; (2) close time provisions tor the pro- 

 tection of game during certain seasons of the year ; 

 (3) provisions to enable farmers to protect their 

 crops against the ravages of ground -game; (4) 

 revenue and license laws imposing government 

 duties upon the exercise of a right to take or to 

 deal in game. 



( 1 ) Poaching. The most important of the acts at 

 present in force against poaching are the Day Poach- 

 ing Act, 1831 ( Scotland, 1832) ; the Night Poaching 

 Acts, 1828 and 1844; and the Poaching Preven- 

 tion Act, 1862. These statutes impose penalties 

 for trespass by night or by day in pursuit of game, 



and for the illegal POMMCMMOII of game ; and contain 

 stringent provision* for the detection and pnni-li 

 mi-lit of offender*. Night-poaching in treated an a 

 much more serious offence than day -poaching, the 

 reason being that night poaching, especially by 

 large bands, is apt to lead to acte of werioua 

 violence. 8ee the article POACHING. 



(2) Clone Time. This w regulated in England by 

 the Day Trespass Act, 1831, and in Scotland by the 

 Preservation of Game Act, 1772. The clone time 

 in Kngland is, for partridges, from 1st February to 

 1st September; for pheasants, from 1st February to 

 1st October; for black-game, from 10th December 

 to 20th August ( 1st September in Somerset, Devon, 

 and the New Forest); for grouse, from 10th Deceni- 

 l>er to 12th August ; and for bustards, from IM 

 March to 1st September. The seasons in Scotland 

 are the same, except that bustards are not men- 

 tioned in the act. By the Day Trespass Act 

 (adopted for Scotland by the Game Certificates 

 Act, 1860) it is also made illegal to deal in game 

 more than ten days after the commencement of 

 close time. It was recently held that this does not 

 apply to game imported from abroad. 



(3) Protection of Crops. By the Ground Game 

 Act of 1880 an inalienable right to destroy hares 

 and rabbits found upon his land is given to the 

 occupier. In order to minimise the interference 

 with legitimate sport, it is provided that steel traps 

 shall not be used, except in rabbit holes ; that the 

 occupier shall not be entitled to delegate the right 

 to shoot to any person other than one member of 

 his household, specially authorised by him in writ- 

 ing ; and that the occupier of moorlands shall be 

 entitled to take hares only between llth December 

 and 31st March. 



(4) Revenue and License Laws. The different 

 duties and licenses in connection with taking and 

 the dealing in game are eml>odied in a series of 

 revenue statutes, which it is unnecessary to enumer- 

 ate. A game-license for the whole year costs 3 ; 

 but a license may be taken for half a year to 1st 

 November, or for half a year thereafter at 2 ; or a 

 license may be taken for a period of fourteen con- 

 tinuous days at 1. A gamekeeper's license costs 

 2. Dealers in game must annually obtain a 

 license from the justices, upon production of which 

 and payment of 2 of duty they obtain an Inland 

 Revenue license to deal in game. 



Strong exception is taken to the game-laws by 

 many. It is urged that the provisions for the 

 detection of poachers are harsh and inquisitorial, 

 and there can be no doubt that the difficulty of 

 detecting this offence (arising mainly from the 

 impossibility of identifying the articles taken ) has 

 led to the enactment of certain provisions of a very 

 stringent character. Although, however, the pro- 

 visions are harsh on their face, it may be doubted 

 if it has often happened that any person who had 

 come properly in possession of game, and was able 

 to give an honest accoxint of it, has been subjected 

 to serious inconvenience by the operation of these 

 laws. A much more formidable objection is that 

 the laws are out of harmony with the general sense 

 of a large section of the community ; that in the 

 eyes of many respectable persons and of most 

 poachers poaching is no crime ; and that many 

 men have by the operation of these statutes been 

 made criminals who would scorn to stoop to any 

 act of ordinary dishonesty. There is force in this 

 objection, for there can be no doubt that, whatever 

 be the explanation, poaching is looked upon by 

 many in quite a different light from any other 

 offence. Prison governors and chaplains tell that 

 they never find a poacher penitent or willing to 

 admit that he has done wrong. The community of 

 the right to game, either as a primitive tradition or 

 as a legal theory handed down from the Roman 



