FEM.. NATU'R/E (Lat., animals, wild of nature). In law, animals of wild nature and habo its, in contradistinction to domesticated a nimal At common law, they are not the subjects of absolute property, and persons having them in possession are bound at their peril to keep them from doing harm. A qualified property in them may be gained by taming or confining them, or by reason of owning the land on which are their habitual resorts, or by reason of their inability to wander from such land, or by reason of an exclusive legal privilege of hunting, taking, and Idlling them. Even in such cases, if the animals escape from the possession of the qualified owner or from his land, and are thus at liberty in ac cordance with their wild nature and habits, the qualified property ceases, and any stranger may take them without incurring any liability to the possessor. in accordance with this doc trine it is held that if a swarm of bees Ily from the owner's land, they remain in his possession so long as he keeps them in sight and is able to pos sess them; but if they escape from his pursuit and light upon the land of another, the latter may hive and keep them. It is also held that a
landowner has a qualified property in a swarm of wild bees in his woods, and a stranger can acquire no title to them by finding and taking them there without such owner's consent.
The liability of a person who has in his pos session animals fern natant. is virtually that of an insurer of the safety of others against hams from such animals. It has been held, there fore, that one who keeps an elephant does so at his own risk, and an action can be maintained for an injury done by it, although the owner had no knowledge of its mischievous propensities. Consult the Commentaries of Blackstone and Kent: also Darlington. Ott Personal Property (Philadelphia. 1891) ; Sehouler, Treatise on the Law of Personal Property (3(1 ed., Boston, is9n).