FE RE NATURE (Lat. of a wild nature). Those animals which flee the dominion of man, whether beast, bird, or fish, and retain their natural freedom, are thus charac terized in the Roman law. According to that system, such animals became the property of any one who might catch them, irrespectively of the ownership of the soil on which they were taken, on the principle that "natural reason gives to the first occupant that which has no owner."—Inst. ii. tit. i. s. 12. But this regulation did not prevent the prohibition of trespass. " Of course, any one who enters the ground of another for the purpose of hunting or fowling, may be prohibited by the proprietor, if he perceives his intention of entering" (M.). This right on the part of the proprietor did not affect the property of the animal taken, though it gave him an action against the trespasser. if a wild animal escaped from its captor, his proprietorship instantly ceased, and the animal might again be appropriated by its captor. This occurred even though the animal was not out of sight, if it could not be pursued without great difficulty. Even a wounded animal was not the property of the sportsman till it was caught, though the point which is decided in this sense (Inst. ii. tit. i. s. 13) is said to have been one on which difference of opinion had prevailed. Except in so far as it is modified by the statutes, which will be explained under GAME-LAWS, these provisions form part of the common law both of England and Scotland. Animals which are said to be F. N., or of a wild and untam able disposition, any man may seize upon and keep for his own use or pleasure; but if they escape from his custody, though without his voluntary abandonment, it naturally follows that they return to the common stock, and any man else has an equal right to seize and enjoy them afterwards (Stephen's Blackstone, i. 161). The law of Scotland
followed the law of Rome so closely in this, as in other respects, that the passage from the Institutes of Justinian above referred to was translated into one of the oldest collec tions of Scottish laws—that, viz., contained in the Cromortie MS., the date of which may be assigned to the latter part of ,the 14th c., and which certainly is not later than the reign of Robert III. (Irvine's Game-laws, p. 20, and statutes published by the record commission, appendix v. p. 385); see also Stair, ii. 1, 5, and 33; and Ersk. ii. 1, 10. Under animals, F. N., the law of Rome included bees, unless included in a hive, or sleep, as it is still called in Scotland, or unless the proprietor be in pursuit of them, and has kept them in sight. See BEE. Domestic animals, though they stray, do not cease to be the property of those to whom they have belonged; but as regards animals which have a tendency to return to a state of nature, the rule of the Roman law was, that property in them continued so long as they had the intention of returning (animism revertendi), or rather, one would imagine, the habit of doing so. This rule applied to peacocks and pigeons, but not to fowls and geese; with reference to which it was provided, that though they should be frightened and take to flight, they were still yours, though you might have lost sight of them, and that whoever detained them with a view to his own profit, was guilty of theft. See DOVECOT, 'WARREN, FOREST LAWS; FISIIES, ROYAL.