562 GAME LAWS. 



caribou at a forbidden season is a possessor of all such caribou 

 and liable for the full penalty.^^ 



An action for the penalty, though in the name of the peo- 

 ple, is a civil action and the defendant is not entitled to trial 

 in the county where the cause of action accrued, as in crim- 

 inal cases.^^ The complaint need not, however, allege to 

 whom the penalty goes.^* 



Where the fish and game protectors, and also a private 

 person, may sue for the penalties, a judgment in an action 

 by the latter is a bar to an action by the former.^^ 



Under a statute imposing a penalty on any who should hunt 

 on their own lands on Sunday, except those who observed 

 Saturday as the Sabbath, it was held that the complaint should 

 aver that the defendant was not within the exception or that 

 he was not hunting on his own land.^® 



Fish has been held to be "game" within the meaning of a 

 constitutional prohibition against the enactment of special 

 laws for the protection of game.^^ 



129. Capture, Sale or Possession of Game in the Close Season. — 



Although, as was said in the preceding section, the passage of 

 acts forbidding the capture, sale or possession of game at 

 certain seasons is recognized as within the police power of the 

 State, there has been some diversity of opinion as to the 

 construction of such statutes with regard to the sale and 

 possession during the close season of game that has been 

 captured or killed at a lawful time or place. 



In England it was held to be no defence to an information 

 under the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1876 (39 and 40 Vict, 

 c. 29), for exposing wild birds for sale during the close 

 season, that such birds had been bought of or received from 

 one residing out of the United Kingdom. Coleridge, C. J., 



^" Allen V. Leighton, 87 Me. 206. 



''" Peo. V. Rouse, 15 N. Y. Suppt. 414. " State v. Thrasher, 79 Me. 17. 



-" Peo. V. Robbins, 39 Hun. (N. Y.) 137. 



=" State V. Peters, 51 N. J. L. 244. " State v. Higgins, 51 S. C. 51. 



