2i8 TRESPASSING ANIMALS 



when there is anything to be got by it. A country 

 rector, on seeing his neighbour's ducks and a couple 

 of geese walking for the tenth day in succession 

 through his meadow-grass on their way to his straw- 

 berry-beds, remarked with resignation that he supposed 

 he must have a wooden fence put up. ' No, sir, no,' 

 replied his gardener bitterly ; ' you aren't obliged to 

 keep no fence against them things as flies! The force 

 of this remark on the futility of building a wall to 

 keep out birds was unanswerable, and sounded like the 

 basis of natural law as to bird trespass. Instances in 

 which animals recognise or maintain rights to certain 

 ground against other animals are not common. A dog 

 will turn trespassing cattle out of his master's corn 

 without orders, but he seldom asserts a personal right 

 to more than his own bed or kennel. This he defends 

 vigorously. The keenness with which the Constan- 

 tinople street-dogs reserve their own particular quarter, 

 sometimes limited by an arbitrary boundary, such as 

 the centre of a street, one side of which belongs to one 

 set of dogs, and another to another, is an instance to 

 the contrary. But, except in the case of the large 

 carnivora, both beasts and birds, there is little dis- 

 position to assert a right to definite areas, and c careful- 

 ness being least in that which is common to most,' 

 there can be no resentment of trespass where there is 

 no feeling for property. 



