Game - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition game

Definition :

Game [fr. gaman, Sax.], all sorts of birds and beasts that are objects of the chase. The term is defined by the Game Act, 1831 (1 & 2 Wm. 4, c. 32), as including for the purposes of that Act 'hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or moor-game, black game, and bustards'; but some of its provisions are directed to trespass in pursuit of woodcocks, snipes, quails, land rails, and coneys.

At Common Law game belongs to a tenant and not to a landlord, but leases frequently contain a reservation of the game to the landlord, and before the Game Act, 1831, the right to kill game was restricted to freeholders having 100l. a year freehold, or leaseholders having a 99 years' leasehold of 150l. a year, etc. This Act repeals the (English) Qualification Act of 22 & 23 Car. 2, c. 25, and (after giving the game to landlords in the case of leases made before the Act for less than 21 years-a provision now expired) protects reservations of game by penal provisions. The Act also requires all persons killing or taking game to take out a yearly certificate (for exceptions, see Ground Game Act, 1880; and see GAME LICENCE), and all uncertificated persons selling it a yearly licence, and makes it unlawful to kill game on a Sunday or Christmas-day, or between the days and seasons when game may be killed. The prohibited period is, for partridges, between 1st February and 1st September; for pheasants, between 1st February and 1st October; for black game (except in the county of Somerset or Devon, or in the New Forest in the county of Southampton), between 10th December and 20th August; or in the county of Somerset or Devon, or in the New Forest, between 10th December and 1st September; for grouse, commonly called red game, between 10th December and 12h August; for bustard, between 1st March and 1st September. As to buying, selling or being in possession of game during the prohibited periods, see (English) Revenue Act, 1911, s. 10. As to (English) Licensing Dealers in Game, see (English) Game Act, 1831; (English) Game Licences Act, 1860, s. 14, as amended by Revenue (No. 2) Act, 1161, s. 17; Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1893, s. 2; (English) Hares Preservation Act, 1892, s. 2.

Compensation for Damage by.By the Common Law, the moment a man brings game on to land to an unreasonable amount, or causes it to increase to an unreasonable extent, he is doing that which is unlawful, and an action may be maintained for the damage sustained, Farrer v. Nelson, (1885) 15 QBD 258.

S. 11(5) of the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1923, gives the following definition:-

For the purposes of this section the expression 'game' means deer, pheasants, partridges, grouse, and black game;

And, subject to certain restrictions and conditions, gives compensation for damage caused by such 'game,' if it exceeds in amount the sum of one shilling per acre of the area over which the damage extends. Consult Aggs on Agricultural Holdings.

As to right of occupier to kill hares and rabbits under (English) Ground Game Acts, 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 47), and 1906 (6 Edw. 7, c. 21), see HARE. See also GAME LICENCE; POACHING; Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Game.'Wild animals and birds considered as object of pursuits, for food or sport; esp., animal for which one must have a licence to hunt, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 687