poſtremo coram eccleſia vel judicio: and the ſpace of a year was allowed for the owner to reclaim his property[1]. If the owner claims them within the year and day, he muſt pay the charges of finding, keeping, and proclaiming them[2]. 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[3]. 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[4] 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[5]; 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[6]; and may not uſe it by way of labour, but is liable to an action for ſo doing[7]. Yet he may milk a cow, or the like, for that tends to the preſervation, and is for the benefit of the animal[8].
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 occupant or
