2 WILD ANIMALS. 



In animala of the latter kind a qualified property may ^xist 

 at the common law in three ways: per industriam hominis, 

 where a man reclaims and tames them, or confines them so 

 that they cannot enjoy their natural liberty ; per impotmtiam, 

 where the young of wild animals are too weak to escape from 

 the control of the land-owner ; and propter privilegium, where 

 one has an exclusive privilege of hunting and killing anirnals 

 within his liberty.^ This property was held to cease when 

 the animals pass out of the control of their owner, subject to 

 certain exceptions to be hereafter considered. 



So in the civil law, the title termed "occupatio," or the ac- 

 quisition of ownership by taking possession of things formerly 

 without an owner, exists with regard to wild animals. Gaius 

 says : "If we have caught a wild beast or a bird or fish, the 

 moment this animal has been caught it becomes ours, and it 

 is regarded as ours so long as it is under the restraint of our 

 safekeeping, but when it has escaped from our keeping and 

 regained its natural liberty, it becomes the property of the 

 first taker, because it ceases to be ours. Now, it is considered 

 to regain its natural liberty when either it has escaped out of 

 our sight or, though still in our sight, the pursuit is difficult."^ 



In the Report of the Royal Commissioners on the Crim- 

 inal Code it is said : "As to living animals ferce naturcB in 

 captivity we think they ought to be capable of being stolen. 

 When such an animal escapes from captivity, a distinction 

 appears to arise which deserves recognition. If the ani- 

 mal is one which is commonly found in a wild state in this 

 country, it seems reasonable that on its escape it should cease 

 to be property. A person seeing such an animal in a field 

 may have no reasonable ground for supposing that it had just 

 escaped from captivity. If, however, a man were to fall in 

 with an animal imported as a curiosity at great expense from 

 the interior of Africa, he would hardly fail to know that it 



'2 Bl. Com. 391. 



" Gai. II § 67, quoted in Salkowski's Roman Private Law (Whitfield's 

 ed.) § 83. 



