Bird Catching In India. 123 



easily secured. 



Another method of captiiring^ Quail which has been 

 described to me, but which 1 have never witnessed is by- 

 means of a large bee-hive shaped basket devoid of a bottom 

 and provided with an aperture at the top sufficiently large for 

 the insertion of a man's hand. In order to use this apparatus 

 it is necessary to discover some bush tuider which Quail 

 arc in the habit of congregating at night time. This is done 

 by looking out during th? day time for their droppings. 

 Having discovered such a bush the Quail-catcher \-isits it 

 after sunset and drops his basket over it. All that he has 

 then to do is to insert his hand through the hole in the, top of 

 the basket and feel about until he secures a Quail that chances 

 to be under the bush. 



Anoth'-r method of capturing Quail is by means of a 

 dcco)- bird in a special kind of wicker cage. Attached to 

 each side of the cage is a kind of closed wicker verandah, 

 so arranged that the outer wall can be made to lie on the 

 ground and spring up so as to clos ' the verandah, as soon 

 a-. lij.du pressure is Ijrought to bear on it. 



(Juail are exceedingly pugnacious. Wild birds hear- 

 mg the call of a decoy bird at once come to tight it. The 

 moment a (Juail runs iiuo one of the verandahs the outer wall 

 close i with a snap and tlie bird hnds itself a capti\e. Some- 

 times a further trap :s set round the cage at some distance 

 from it in the shape of a square ui netted frame> with a 

 small space between each just large enough for a (Juail to 

 pass thrcnigh. At (■a( h of these gapi a horse-hair noose is 

 attached to the frame so that any Quail attempting to get 

 through a gap is caught. 



MisM Cockburn states that a method of securing the 

 parent birds in cases where the young liave been caught is 

 to place these last in a hole about a foot deep. The old 

 birds hnding that tlie young ones cannot come up to them 

 drop into the hole, and when there they rind themselves in ilie 

 same difficulty as the young birds and are promptly captured. 

 In default of lall-birds Quail are sometimes attracted to the 

 net by the sound made by draggiinj tlie ringer nail over a 



