94 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



yards long; the rope is at least seventy. Too ponderous 

 an affair for one man to manage. The haul was only one 

 Widgeon — not much for many hours' labour, for I was told 

 they had been driving since daybreak. 



The thing was done on a smaller scale by our own boat- 

 men, who placed a small clap-net at the end of the island 

 where we anchored, and made a kind of cacJic in which one 

 of them spent the night, and next morning he produced a 

 drake Pintail which he had caught, and which we kept alive 

 in a hutch for long after. 



I must now describe how Coots are captured, for it was 

 more particularly to see the mode of taking them that we 

 had come out. As soon as night sets in, four or five " Coot- 

 catchers " sally forth in a flat -bottomed boat, provided with 

 a fireplace of baked mud, and a couple of punting poles, 

 for the greater part of this immense lake is very shallow. 

 Soon the distant "muttering" of the quarry is heard. The 

 boat is propelled circumspectly, silence is enjoined, until 

 from the increasing volume the men judge that they are 

 within a few hundred yards of the place the sound comes 

 from. Then one, more hardy than the rest, slips aside his 

 pelisse of sheep-skin, stands erect for a moment, naked save 

 a thin waistband and a tight-fitting black skullcap, winds a 

 long casting net round his right arm and jumps into the 

 water ; and now the use of the skullcap is seen, for as he is 

 immersed to his nostrils it is the only part which shows, 

 and of course it resembles a Coot exactly.* 



He makes a trial essay with his net, which he throw^s 

 with consummate skill. I have seen men in England who 

 thought they knew how to throw a casting net, but I never 

 saw one who could equal in dexterity these Menzaleh 

 fishermen. I should say he would be certain death to any 



* Formerly a -whliQ plaque was added to represent the frontal shield, 

 but this is now dispensed with. 



