8 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



ancient fowler, and was chiefly useful in taking- wild-fowl on tlie surface 

 of the water.* It was a machine very similar to a French quail-pipe : 

 that used for water-fowl was not unlike a modern decoy-pipe. The 

 art of decoy, however, was not then known : the birds were not 

 decoyed into the argumentum, but driven. 



The pantheraf was a kind of purse or drag' net, used by ancient 

 fowlers for taking' water-fowl, and was the largest description of net 

 known for the purpose. Wild-fowl were captured in the panthera on 

 land, whilst feeding- at nig-ht in the fens; it was also hung- upon poles, 

 and extended along- the banks of rivers, according to the tm-ns of the 

 current, the fowler, meanwhile, keeping watch over the movements of 

 the birds.! 



The curhaculum was simply a trap employed by the fowlers of old, 

 for taking birds in the snow.§ 



Ancient fowlers are said to have been gifted with an art of enchant- 

 ment, whereby birds were enticed into snares, or otherwise became 

 captives to the fowler's artifices, through attracting their attention, 

 or amusing- them in such a manner as to excite their curiosity ; and 

 for this purpose the fowlers used to clothe themselves in feathered 

 jerkins,|| and dance with particular motions and gestures in the 

 presence of such birds as they sought to capture. 



The methods of taking wild-fowl with horse-hair nooses and springes 

 are very ancient. They were used by the Anglo-Saxons both by night 

 and day, and were employed in the fens- as well as by the margins of 

 lakes, rivers, and pools, the snares being sometimes placed under 

 water. IF They were also frequently planted in plashes, made by 

 breaking the ice, because of the greater resort of wild-fowl to such 



* " Argumentum : Macliina, qua aves in aquis capimitur." — Du Cange. 



" De argumentis vero, per quae aves possunt capi super aquam." — Charta Childe- 

 herti Regis pro Monasterio 8. Germani, Parisiensis. 



t " Panthera posita ab aucupe." — Ulpicmus. 



Panthera is also a term a.pplied by the lower Normans to nets used for taking all 

 kinds of birds, whether land or waterfowl : " Normanni inferiores Pantiere vocant rete 

 quo capiuntur aves maritimse." — Martinii. 



Panthera is also a word used by Peter de Crescentius (who flourished about 

 the middle of the 13th century), in his " Ojdus Rm-alium Comniodorum sive de 

 Agricultura." 



J " Ajidr. Floriac. in Mirac. S. Bened. MSS., lib. iii. : Dum casses retium, quas 

 vulgo Pantheras vocant, hinc indo porrectis amicibus fluminis alternis protenderet 

 ripis, et volucrum pervigil excubitor prasstolatur capturam, etc." — Du Cange. 



§ " Cm-baculum : Instrumentum ad capiendas aves tempore nivium." — Petrus de 

 Crescentiuft, lib. x., De Agricultura. 



II Fosbroke's " Encyclopa3dia of Antiquities." 



^ Blome's " Gent's. Rec." 



