72 PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



manner as to leave the states a wide latitude of discretion in 

 control over wild animals. 



How an Individual Acquires Property in Animals ferae 

 naturae: 



There are three manner of rights of property that is, property 

 absolute, property qualified, and property possessory. A man 

 hath not absolute property in anything that is ferae naturae but 

 in those which are domitae naturae. Property qualified and pos- 

 sessory a man may have in those which are ferae naturae ; and 

 to such property a man may attain in two ways, by industry or 

 ratione impotentiae et loci; by industry as by making them 

 domesticae but in those which are ferae naturae, and by indus- 

 try made tame, as man hath but a qualified property in them, 

 scil. so long as they remain tame for if they do attain to their 

 natural liberty . . . the property is lost . . . ratione impotentiae 

 et loci; as if a man has young shoveler or goshawks which are 

 ferae naturae and they build on my land, I have possessory 

 property in them, for if one takes them when they can not fly 

 the owner of the soil shall have an action for trespass . . . 



It is thus that Coke classifies property in wild animals, 63 

 and his statement that a person may obtain qualified prop- 

 erty by capturing an animal usually wild and confining it in 

 captivity, seems to apply with equal force in modern Amer- 

 ican law today. 64 The determination of which animals are 

 usually wild has proved to be a knotty legal problem. 65 The 

 distinction is of great importance 66 because property in 

 domesticated animals continues wherever they may stray, 



63 Case of the Swans, 7 Coke 15, 77 Eng. R. 435 (1585). 

 ^Dieterich v. Fargo, 194 N. Y. 359, 87 N. E. 518 (1909). 



65 Kent in his Commentaries points out the difficulty of drawing the 

 line between animals naturally wild and those which have been domes- 

 ticated. 2 Kent 348. 



66 Especially in view of the rapidly increasing amount of capital in- 

 vested in fur farms both in the United States and Alaska. 



