Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/406

 390 there is a great difference made with repect to their everal claes, not only in our law, but in the law of nature and of all civilized nations. They are ditinguihed into uch as are domitae, and uch as are ferae naturae; ome being of a tame, and others of a wild dipoition. In uch as are of a nature tame and dometic, (as hores, kine, heep, poultry, and the like) a man may have as abolute a property as in any inanimate beings; becaue thee continue perpetually in his occupation, and will not tray from his houe or peron, unles by accident or fraudulent enticement, in either of which caes the owner does not loe his property : in which our law agrees with the laws of France and Holland. The tealing, or forcible abduction, of uch property as this, is alo felony; for thee are things of intrinic value, erving for the food of man, or ele for the ues of huband-dry. But in animals ferae naturae a man can have no abolute property.

all tame and dometic animals, the brood belongs to the owner of the dam or mother; the Englih law agreeing with the civil, that "partus equitur ventrem" in the brute creation, though for the mot part in the human pecies it diallows that maxim. And therefore in the laws of England, as well as Rome , "i equam meam equus tuus praegnantem fecerit, non et tuum ed meum quod natum et." And, for this, Puffendorf gives a enible reaon: not only becaue the male is frequently unknown; but alo becaue the dam, during the time of her pregnancy, is almot ueles to the proprietor, and mut be maintained with greater expene and care: wherefore as her owner is the loer by her pregnancy, he ought to be the gainer by her brood. An exception to this rule is in the cae of young cygnets; which belong equally to the owner of the cock and hen, and hall be divided between them. But here the reaons of the general rule Rh