ANCIENT METHODS OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL, 15 



comniDiily frequented by such birds, in boles or furrows in tbe 

 ground, with the points of the cones downwards : be tlien baits each 

 of them with a small fish, which he places inside, at the very point 

 or bottom of the hood ; and, having- bedaubed the interior of the paper 

 with bird-lime, the traps are ready. The hung-ry cranes, coming- to 

 their haunts, eag-erly thrust their heads into the hoods to seize the 

 fish, when, the bird-Hme sticking- to their feathers, and the hoods 

 covering- their eyes, in that hoodwinked dilemma they are unable to 

 fiy, and so become captives to the fowler. The artifice is thus de- 

 scribed in the Latin text from which, assisted by the illustration, our 

 description in Eng-lish has been written : 



" Auceps e cliartis confectos arte cucullos 

 Interius visco Unit : in scrobibus locat : indit 

 Pisa : venit Grus esuriens : rostrum ingerit : bferet 

 Charta oculos velans, volucri proliibetque volatum." 



This method of taking- cranes with conical hoods is mentioned 

 by Blome as " a very pleasant wa}^ of taking- pig-eons, rooks, and 

 crows ;" but, instead of a fish being- used as a bait, a few g-rains of 

 corn are put at the bottom of the hood. The plan is recommended 

 to be used in ploug-hing-time, the hoods being- placed in the furrows, 

 and baited with lob-worms. 



There is also another ancient method of fowling- to be explained, 

 which will strike the modern fowler as equally rude in contrivance, 

 thoug-h apparently practised with remarkable success upon the smaller 

 sort of wildfowl, which for the most part frequent and feed upon the 

 water at nig-ht. The nets employed for this purpose, were simply 

 what are termed at the present day " flue-nets," and such as are used 

 for taking fresh-water fish in narrow waters. For the purposes 

 required by the ancient fowler, these nets were two-and-a-half or 

 three feet in depth, and of leng-ths in proportion to the width of the 

 river or extent of the water over which they were employed. 



A number of these were thrown across a stream, at various dis- 

 tances apart, and staked down at each end to the bank., in such a 

 manner that the lower part, which was weig-hted for the purpose, 

 mig-ht sink about half-a-foot imder water, but not deeper ; the re- 

 mainder or upper part of the net standing- in a bowline, about 

 eig-hteen inches above the surface, and the rods supporting- it being- 

 flexible, so that, when any fowl struck against the net, the rods 

 yielded to the pressure, and gave scope for entanglement. Some of 



