28 WILD ANIMALS. 



possession, and that when the next comer finds the body of 

 a seal or the bodies of seals on the ice without any acconiT 

 panying indicia of property, the man who claims as of right 

 against him must be in a position then and there to assert his 

 right of property, to point to the specific seals as his own or 

 those of his fellows, and to exercise corporal control over 

 them, unless he is resisted by force or deterred by threats of 

 violence. Except under such circumstances I am of opinion 

 that the killer must be held to have left or abandoned the dead 

 sound seals to the next finder who shall possess himself of 

 them." "1 



Where a sea lion escaped from its captor's control on Long 

 Island Sound and disappeared until about two weeks after- 

 wards, when it was recaptured by a fisherman in the ocean 

 more than seventy miles from the sound, it was held that its 

 original captor lost his right to it, since it had regained its 

 liberty without having the animus revertendi , and it was 

 further held that the contention that there can be no return 

 of such an animal to its natural liberty until it has reached its 

 native place on the coast of California or, at least, a place (not 

 found on the American coast) where the physical conditions 

 are favorable to its existence, was untenable.^**^ 



11. Fish, Oysters — The owner of a several fishery has a priv- 

 ileged property in the fish therein, and trespass will lie for 

 taking them.i''^' But fish are not the subject of larceny unless 

 reclaimed, confined or dead and valuable for food or other- 

 wise. "All the books agree that if fish are confined in a tank 

 or otherwise so that they may be taken at the pleasure of him 

 who has thus appropriated them, then they are the subject of 

 larceny. 'Fish confined in a net or tank are sufficiently se- 



™ Power V. Kennedy, Morris's Newfoundland Decis. (1884-1896) 34. 



See North Amer. Comml. Co. v. U.S., 171 U. S. no, as to rental and 

 taxation. 



"^ Mullett V. Bradley, 24 Misc. (N. Y.) 695. See the comments on this 

 case quoted in § i, supra. 



"' Child V. Greenhill, 3 Cro. 553. 



