40 WILD ANIMALS. 



Statutes to which I have ahuded mention them in terms of 

 condemnation. That being the case, can a party claim a 

 right to have them come to his premises, and is he at liberty 

 to say that a person is a wrongdoer who protects the neigh- 

 borhood from the mischiefs which they are likely to produce, 

 by driving them away? We are of opinion that these ques- 

 tions must be answered in the negative. No authority has 

 been cited to show that a party has any right of property in 

 animals of this description. The authorities which have 

 been cited relate to animals which are perfectly innocent and 

 which are articles of food and stand upon a dififerent founda- 

 tion." 1" "', 



15. Inheritance in Wild Animals. — The ancient rule appears 

 to have been that wild animals in an enclosure passed at the 

 death of their owner to the heir, as incident to the freehold, 

 and not to the executor — the reason being that without them 

 the inheritance would be incomplete and also that the owner 

 Tiad no transmissible personal right of property in them. If 

 the deceased had only a term of years in the land, the animals 

 were said to go to the executor for use, but not for waste, as 

 accessory chattels, following the estate of the principal, 

 though it has been suggested that this would be true only if 

 the executor caught them before the lease expired.^*^ But 

 in the later cases it has been held that deer in a park when re- 

 claimed become personal chattels and cease to be parcel of the 

 inheritance and consequently pass to the executors.^*^ As 

 to doves in a dove-house see § 9, supra; and as to fish in a 

 pond, see § 11, supra. 



Wild animals, when reclaimed, being personal property, 



'" Hannam v. Mockett, 4 Dowl. & Ryl. 518, 537. 



""i Schoul. Pers. Prop. § 97, citing 7 Co. 17 b.; Went. Off. Ex. 127, 

 T4th ed.; Com. Dig. Biens, B., i Wms. Exrs. 666; Co. Litt. 53 a. 



"° Ford V. Tynte, 2 Johns. & H. 150; Morgan v. Abergavenny (Earl), 

 8 C. B. 768. And see the opinion in Davies v. Powell, Willes 46, quoted 

 in § 13, supra. 



