Game
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Game. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
animals of the chase. In its widest sense the term includes all fishes, birds, and animals, both of the land and sea, pursued and taken for profit or pleasure. By a fiction of English law defended by no less an authority than Blackstone, all game belongs to the king or to those whom he may authorize to take it. Under this view the game laws of England were very severe. It was a common saying that a slayer of the king's deer was treated more harshly than the slayer of men. As a matter of fact, hunters were put to death for killing deer without permission. The illegal taking of rabbits, pheasants, and other game is known in England as poaching. It is still treated as a serious offense. In America more liberal views have prevailed. Game of all sorts has been considered the rightful property of anyone who chose to take it, provided he kept out of inclosed or occupied premises. A farmer is considered entitled in season to the game found on his own farm, but the owner of wild, uninclosed, uncultivated land hardly ventures to set up a claim to exclusive ownership. To prevent the extermination of game most states have enacted laws forbidding hunting or fishing during certain seasons. The open season during which each species of deer, moose, waterfowl, grouse, and game fish may be taken is established by statute. Many states forbid the exportation of game. Game wardens are appointed to enforce the laws. A number of sportsmen's organizations, the American Ornithological Union, the Audubon societies, and other associations, local, state, and national, aim to stimulate officials to vigilance. The national government has enacted game laws for Alaska and has established numerous game and forest preserves, notably Yellowstone Park. Game is protected in a number of large city parks. There are a number of private game parks. Several men of wealth have acquired game preserves in the Adirondack region. George W. Vanderbilt has a park of 80,000 acres at Biltmore, North Carolina . In 1889 Austin Corbin, the lock maker, inclosed 36,000 acres near Newport, New Hampshire , with an eight foot fence of wire netting. Here he protects all sorts of game from a moose downward. This park covers a tract of mountain, stream, and meadow twelve miles long and seven wide. It is not only one of the largest, but one of the most successful private game preserves in the world. See Deer ; Grouse ; Duck ; Salmon ; Trout ; Bird
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
any contrivance, arrangement, or institution designed to afford recreation, sport or amusement; as, the game of baseball, or of football; in the plural contests in different sports, as wrestling, running, etc. Public Games of Antiquity. The public games of the Greeks were very numerous, and the origin of many of them is lost, on account of the religious mystery in which they were founded. Among the Grecian games, the most celebrated were the Olympic, the Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmian. The conquerors in the Olympic games were held in high respect, and were looked on as the noblest and happiest of men. These games were held every five years at Olympia, in Elis, on the W. side of the Peloponnesus. Among the exercises, some were designed to give strength, and others agility. The lighter exercises comprised running, leaping, throwing the quoit, and hurling the javelin. The more severe course discipline included wrestling and boxing. xing stituted a particular feature in all the ancient games. The Isthmian games were held at Corinth, and, together with athletic exercises, horse and chariot races, constituted a large portion of the spectacle. Originally these games were connected with the worship of Neptune. The Persian war gave an impulse to the Isthmian games, while the Peloponnesian war dimmed their glory. Under the Romans, these games did not lose their importance, but were exhibited with increased celebrity. They were then held every three years, and comprised three leading divisions-musical, gymnastic, and equestrian contests. The prize at the Olympic games was merely a chaplet of wild olive. At the Isthmian games, the prize was parsley during the mythic periods; in later times, however, the victor was generally crowned with a wreath of pine leaves. The amusements in the Roman circus did not differ materially from those which were celebrated in the games of ancient Greece. The theriomachia, or beast fight, was a favorite species of entertainment among them; and the men employed to fight with wild beasts, were called bestiarii. The combatants were divided into two classes-those who fought voluntarily for amusement or pay, and who were provided with weapons and condemned persons, who were generally exposed to the fury of the animals naked, without arms, and sometimes bound. Under Pompey, no less than 600 lions were thus destroyed; and under Titus, 5,000 wild and 4,000 similar tame animals perished in a manner.