INTRODUCTORY 17 



permission from the landowner, and 

 conform to fiscal requirements, may shoot 

 game with the same freedom as the owner 

 of the soil. 



Possession of this delegation and pay- 

 ment of the licence duty attached to this 

 form of sport distinguishes the legitimate 

 sportsman from the poacher as far as the 

 sanction of law is concerned. Into the 

 relations which, by complex and, as some 

 think, still somewhat harsh restrictions, 

 differentiate the legalised sportsman from 

 the trespassing poacher, it is, however, in- 

 advisable here to enter. It is a peculiarity 

 or anomaly of the Game Laws that what 

 they are designed to protect is not 

 property but privilege. It may be main- 

 tained that wild birds and beasts on an 

 estate are the growth of that property, 

 having been cared for and perhaps fed by 

 its owner. Nevertheless he cannot reclaim 



these from a neighbouring estate, should 



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any of them go there, as he can farm stock 

 or any kind of domesticated animals. It 

 is in this that the poacher finds some, 



