- Bounty (reward)
A bounty (from Latin "bonitās", goodness) is a
payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form ofmoney . Two modern examples of bounties are the bounty placed for the capture ofSaddam Hussein and his sons by theUnited States [cite news
title = Saddam bounty may go unclaimed
publisher = CNN.com
date =December 15 ,2006
url = http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/15/sprj.nirq.saddam.reward/index.html
accessdate = 2007-08-12] andMicrosoft 's bounty forcomputer virus creators. [cite web | title=Cheat Sheet: Microsoft's virus bounty | work=silicon.com | url=http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39120572,00.htm | accessmonthday=May 10 | accessyear=2004.] Those who make a living by pursuing bounties are known asbounty hunter s.Examples
Historical examples
A bounty system was used in the
American Civil War . It was an incentive to increase enlistments. Another bounty system was used inNew South Wales to increase the number of immigrants from 1832. [cite web | title=Immigration | work=geocities.com | url= http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Canyon/6387/immigration.html
accessdaymonth = 7 April | accessyear=2006]Bounties were sometimes paid as rewards for killing Native Americans. In 1862, a farmer received a $500 bounty for shooting
Taoyateduta (Little Crow). In 1856 GovernorIsaac Stevens put a bounty on the head of Indians from Eastern Washington, $20 for ordinary Indians and $80 for a "chief". A Western Washington Indian,Patkanim , chief of the Snohomish, obligingly provided a great many heads, until the Territorial Auditor put a stop to the practice due to the dubious origins of the deceased.Fact|date=August 2007Bounties have been offered on animals deemed undesirable by particular governments or corporations. In
Tasmania , thethylacine was relentlessly hunted to extinction based on such schemes. Gray Wolves too were extirpated from much of the present United States by bounty hunters. An example of the legal sanction granted can be found in aMassachusetts Bay Colony law dated May 7, 1662: "This Court doth Order, "as an encouragement to persons to destroy Woolves", That henceforth every person killing any Woolf, shall be allowed out of the Treasury of that County where such woolf was slain, Twenty shillings, and by the Town Ten shillings, and by the County Treasurer Ten shillings: which the Constable of each Town (on the sight of the ears of such Woolves being cut off) shall pay out of the next County rate, which the Treasurer shall allow." [Early American Imprints, 1st series, no. 88.]21st century examples
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