12 WILD ANIMALS. 



into possession so as to sustain the charge of larceny." On 

 the authority of Blades v. Higgs, supra, and of other cases 

 cited in this section, the author of the article concludes: 

 "i. When game is killed and falls upon the land of A. it be- 

 comes at once his absolute property. 2. This is so, whether 

 A. has himself killed the game or whether it has been killed 

 by others, trespassers or otherwise. 3. This is so, whether 

 the fact that the game is dead and lying upon his land is or 

 is not within A.'s knowledge. 4. Under such circumstances 

 the game is at 'once reduced into the possession' of A., and 

 he may bring an action against any one who converts it. 

 5. Under such circumstances any person who picks up and 

 dishonestly appropriates the game is guilty of larceny, except 

 in cases where the killing and carrying away are one continu- 

 ous act, as defined in Reg. v. Townley." (Cited infra.) 



The exception referred to is thus explained byBovill, C. J., 

 in Reg. v. Townley:** "Before there can be a conviction for 

 larceny for taking anything not capable in its original state 

 of being the subject of larceny, as for instance things fixed to 

 the soil, it is necessary that the act of taking away should not 

 be one continuous act with the act of severance or other act 

 by which the thing becomes a chattel and so is brought within 

 the law of larceny. This doctrine has been applied to strip- 

 ping lead from the roof of a church, and in other cases of 

 things affixed to the soil. And the present case must be gov- 

 erned by the same principle." In that case, poachers, of 

 whom the prisoner was one, wrongfully killed some rabbits 

 on crown land. They placed the rabbits in a ditch on the 

 same land, some of them in bags and some strapped together, 

 — not having any intention of abandoning their wrongful pos- 

 session but placing the rabbits in the ditch as a place of de- 

 posit till they could conveniently remove them. About three 

 hours afterward the prisoner came back and began to remove 

 the rabbits. It was held that the taking and removal of the 



" L. R. I C. C. 3IS- 



