60 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
bayonet at this moment, so deep was his slumber. It was useless 
to drive the persistent creatures away, so I covered his naked 
trunk with his shirt and towel, which to some extent saved him 
from further attacks. There I left him and resumed my bird- 
watching but did not observe much that I had not already seen at 
Thua Luu. 
The Annamite trappers were slow at first in bringing in any 
owls, though they existed in great variety. No doubt superstitions 
were rife about them as they are in most countries, but after one 
or two people had broken the ice and had brought us specimens, 
the lure of money seemed too much for the rest, and we received 
an astonishing assortment. These included several of the hand- 
some Oriental and Yellow-legged Fish-owls, which are large birds 
with ear-tufts and long, almost bare legs, that live mainly on fish 
in the wild state but thrive on meat and mice in captivity. 
At the opposite extreme were several tiny owls not much larger 
than sparrows, that appeared to live entirely on insects. Some 
refused to eat anything and these were liberated, but one real 
pygmy, known as La Touche’s Owl, we managed to establish. 
This was known previously by three skins only. 
Of the four Oriental Scops Owls in our possession, I captured 
one myself. It was sitting fairly high up in a tree near the edge 
of the forest, and to attempt to get it I cut two long saplings, 
joined them together, and tied a stick of bird-lime on the end. By 
carefully guiding this long wobbly apparatus through the branches, 
I managed to touch his flank with the end and to this he stuck, 
and I was able to haul him safely to earth. This actually is an 
established method of trapping in India, especially in the forests 
of the lower Himaiayas. In the heat of the day, when many birds 
are rather inactive, a trapper will creep under a tree and quietly 
pass a rod, to which is fixed a limed stick, up towards the resting 
bird. The rod is in sections like a fishing-rod, and when one sec- 
tion has been raised to head height another is added, so up and 
up goes the limed stick, the sight of which, strangely enough, never 
seems to create any suspicion in the mind of the bird. A slight 
touch against it is all that is necessary, for when it tries to take 
off it invariably loses balance and gets well and truly caught and 
is then quickly brought to hand. | 
