rice proclaimed, _primum coram comitibus et viatoribus
obviis, deinde in proxima villa vel pago, postremo coram ecclesia vel
judicio_: and the space of a year was allowed for the owner to reclaim
his property[l]. If the owner claims them within the year and day, he
must pay the charges of finding, keeping, and proclaiming them[m]. The
king or lord has no property till the year and day passed: for if a
lord keepeth an estray three quarters of a year, and within the year
it strayeth again, and another lord getteth it, the first lord cannot
take it again[n]. Any beast may be an estray, that is by nature tame
or reclaimable, and in which there is a valuable property, as sheep,
oxen, swine, and horses, which we in general call cattle; and so
Fleta[o] defines it, _pecus vagans, quod nullus petit, sequitur, vel
advocat_. For animals upon which the law sets no value, as a dog or
cat, and animals _ferae naturae_, as a bear or wolf, cannot be
considered as estrays. So swans may be estrays, but not any other
fowl[p]; whence they are said to be royal fowl. The reason of which
distinction seems to be, that, cattle and swans being of a reclaimed
nature, the owner's property in them is not lost merely by their
temporary escape; and they also, from their intrinsic value, are a
sufficient pledge for the expense of the lord of the franchise in
keeping them the year and day. For he that takes an estray is bound,
so long as he keeps it, to find it in provisions and keep it from
damage[q]; and may not use it by way of labour, but is liable to an
action for so doing[r]. Yet he may milk a cow, or the like, for that
tends to the preservation, and is for the benefit, of the animal[s].

[Footnote i: Mirr. c. 3. Sec. 19.]

[Footnote k: 5 Rep. 108. Bro. _Abr. tit. Estray._ Cro. Eliz. 716.]

[Footnote l: Stiernh. _de jur. Gothor._ _l._ 3. _c._ 5.]

[Footnote m: Dalt. Sh. 79.]

[Footnote n: Finch. L. 177.]

[Footnote o: _l._ 1. _c._ 43.]

[Footnote p: 7 Rep. 17.]

[Footnote q: 1 Roll. Abr. 889.]

[Footnote r: Cro. Jac. 147.]

[Footnote s: Cro. Jac. 148. Noy. 119.]

BESIDES the particular reasons before given why the king should have
the several revenues of royal fish, shipwrecks, treasure-trove, waifs,
and estrays, there is also one general reason which holds for them
all; and that is, because they are _bona vacantia_, or goods in which
no one else can claim a property. And therefore by the law of nature
they belonged to the first occu