94 



RECREATION. 



to have you indicted for this most repre- 

 hensible conduct. There is a law made for 

 the punishment of just such men as you, 

 even if you don't know it !" 



"Now look here," said the mill owner, 

 advancing threateningly, "who are you?" 



"Oh, never mind who I am. I sim- 

 ply tell you what the law of this land 

 is, and if you do not know enough to obey 

 it, there are those who will attend to your 

 case, so that much against your wishes, 

 it will make you a law abiding citizen ; 

 free, or where you can do no harm ! Yes, 

 I am going to get off from your land, but 

 I shall have you watched. You may take 

 my card and keep it for economical and 

 other reasons. That little symbol (point- 

 ing to the L. A. S. badge) means an asso- 

 ciation that will never let your case drop. 

 Good day, sir." 



Rising lazily from the marshes went a 

 bird that made the Professor gasp in as- 

 tonishment, and as the wings, flapping 

 heavily, took the bird high in the air and 

 across the river, he recognized it as a rare 

 specimen wanted badly for his cabinet. 



"Tomas, shoot that heron," called the 

 Professor, and in quick response, like 

 divination, came the snapping bark of the 

 little .20 gauge. 



"That's all right. You simply winged 

 him," as the bird, arrested in his flight, 

 began to descend, but rose again and 

 struggled on, with the canoe in pursuit. 

 Behind the hills the heron passed, but the 

 canoe ran up the strand, and Tomas, with 

 the gun in hand, was first out, though the 

 Professor was a close second. 



Then the woodcraft of Tomas came in, 

 for through the patch of woods and across 

 fields they took their way, the Professor 

 well knowing the voyageur would find the 

 bird. Beyond the fields they came to a 

 house, and Tomas, opening the gate, 

 strode up the walk, and passing around to 

 the back of the house, the twain saw a 

 man, apparently the owner of the house, 

 holding the heron. The Professor, after 

 bidding him good day, blandly said, 



"May I trouble you for the bird my man 

 shot." 



"Man shot? What business had he to 

 shoot him on my land? What do you 

 mean by running over my grounds with a 

 savage and a gun, killing birds. I'll have 

 the law on you," was the testy response. 



"Pray, pardon the trespass. I assure 

 you we have done no injury; nor did we 

 shoot the fowl on your land. Tomas shot 

 the bird on the river and winged it, and 

 knowing where it would fall we came for 

 it. Please give it to me." 



"No, I won't please give it to you. I 

 sued a man for anchoring his boat and 

 decoys on my flats, and shooting ducks 

 which fell on my lands. I kept the ducks, 



and he had to pay me damages for his mis- 

 deeds," said the old farmer. "No man 

 shall hunt on my land without my permis- 

 sion ; you may count on that. I taught 

 him some law, and I'll do the same to you. 

 It's a wild fowl and it fell on my land, so 

 I'll keep it." 



"No," returned the Professor, in chilly 

 tones, "you won't keep it. You are a little 

 mistaken in your law, although you are 

 right in asserting that it's a wild fowl — 

 ferae naturae. I had wounded it, and con- 

 tinued in pursuit to capture it, as I had a 

 right to do. Indeed, the ancients held 

 that ferae naturae mortally wounded or 

 greatly maimed can not be rightfully inter- 

 cepted by another while the pursuit of the 

 person inflicting the wound continues ; and 

 the mortal wounding or greatly maiming 

 by one not abandoning pursuit is deemed 

 possesion of the pursuer. My Lord Chief 

 Justice Holt said, 



" 'If I start game in one man's ground 

 which is not my own and follow it into an- 

 other man's ground and there kill it, the 

 property is in me ; because the party in 

 whose ground it was started, having no 

 privilege, can not come and take it. Like 

 the title to all game, it is possession that 

 creates ownership.' " 



"Well," said the other, triumphantly, 

 "possession's nine points of the law." 



"No ! The bird was falling from the 

 shot, and the person who starts the quarry 

 and keeps in pursuit has a right to it on 

 finding it. You are bound to yield it up. I 

 am entitled to assert my claim to the bird, 

 even if you hold it in your hand". My 

 Lord Ellenborough once ruled where a 

 farmer had started a hare on a third man's 

 ground and followed her to defendant's 

 field, where the dogs caught her, and the 

 defendant's laborer picked her up and 

 billed her and gave her to the defendant. 

 Shortly after, and in pursuit, the farmer 

 came up and demanded the hare from the 

 defendant, who refused to give her up. 

 My Lord decided that the hare was the 

 property of the farmer who followed in 

 pursuit of his quarry." 



"Well, you shall not have it, and that 

 ends it," said the owner of the land. 



"Yes," echoed the Professor, "I can not 

 take you by the throat and make you give 

 it to me, and I will not go to law about it, 

 but I supposed every sportsman was a gen- 

 tleman. You can see the bird was bleed- 

 ing from the shot, so the gunner could not 

 be far off, even if you did not hear the 

 gun. I supposed you would give it up, 

 however," and with a sigh that was full of 

 regretful loss, "Come, Tomas, let us go," 

 the 2 started. 



"Hold on," said the old gentleman. ?s 

 the wind blew the Professor's coat aside 

 and the little symbol "L. A. S." gleamed 



