16 WILD ANIMALS. 



and that this also appHed to eggs.^^ But in another case it 

 was held that a boy could not be charged with the larceny of 

 gulls' eggs taken from near a private artificial loch, strictly 

 preserved and surrounded by warning notices, as there is no 

 property in wild birds or their eggs without specific appro- 

 priation.** Larceny cannot be committed of swans' or 

 hawks' eggs.*® 



On an indictment for stealing three eggs, an acquittal was 

 directed on the ground that, for aught that appeared in the in- 

 dictment, the eggs might have been the eggs of adders, or 

 some other species of eggs which could not be the subject of 

 larceny.®* But in a later case where an indictment for stealing 

 a ham was sustained against an objection that there was 

 nothing to show that the ham was fit for food, Pollock, C. B., 

 said : "I think that the case of Reg. v. Cox would not now 

 be considered as law." ®^ 



8. Particular Animals Considered. Bees Having laid down 



the general rules that govern property in wild animals, we 

 shall now consider their application to the cases of particular 

 kinds of animals. With regard to bees, Blackstone says: 

 "Bees also are ferce naturce, but, when hived and reclaimed, a 

 man may have a quaHfied property in them by the law of 

 nature as well as by the civil law. And to the same purpose, 

 not to say in the same words with the civil law, speaks Brac- 

 ton: Occupation, that is hiving or including them, gives 

 the property in bees; for though a swarm Hghts upon my 

 tree, I have no more property in them till I have hived them 

 than I have in the birds which make their nests thereon, and 

 therefore if another hives them, he shall be their proprietor; 

 but a swarm which fly from and out of my hive are mine so 

 long as I can keep them in sight and have power to pursue 



" County court case cited in 22 Ir. L. T. 438. 



'"' County court case cited in i Scots L. T. 6. 



"• 2 East P. C. 607; I Hale P. C. 511. " Reg. v. Cox, Car. & Kir. 494. 



" Reg. V. Gallears, 3 New Sess. Cas. 704. 



