CAPTURING DUN-BIHDS AT THE FLIGHT-POND. 91 



The fictual performance of flushing tlie birds, and raising- the net 

 to intercept their flig'ht, is as follows : — 



When the fowler proceeds to put his poles and nets in operation, 

 and intends trying- his skill upon a flig-lit of dun-birds, having- en- 

 g-ag-ed a sufficient number of assistants, and looked well to his net 

 and the machinery connected with it ; he generally, if an experienced 

 hand, performs the most critical offices himself; but first he places two 

 of his best helpmates one at each of the posts in the back ground, 

 where the falls of the steadying-ropes are conducted, and from which 

 posts, ropes are fixed, and led through sheaves at the extreme upper 

 ends of the poles. The fowler then stations himself at the trigger- 

 post, from which he gives his orders by signal ; and having a com- 

 manding view of the water, looks out sharply for the birds on their 

 being- flushed from the pond ; when, as soon as they have all taken 

 wing, he draws the ring-bolt, and the net being thus set free, it 

 instantly beg-ins to rise. The duty of the assistants then is to steady 

 its ascent, and regulate its rise in accordance with the flight of the 

 birds, and the directions of the fowler ; slower or faster as it may 

 happen, so that the net may intercept the flight of every bird which 

 attempts to leave the pond ; causing them to strike heavily ag-ainst it, 

 and drop headlong into the small diagonal and triangular enclosures 

 (or pens, as they are termed), from which dun-birds cannot rise, or 

 take wing', but are secured as quickly as possible by the fowler and his 

 assistants, and their necks broken with all due dexterity. The object 

 of the pens is very clearly apparent, for if there were none such, the 

 birds would run about the yard and escape ; and if they were per- 

 mitted to drop upon open ground, they would flutter and scramble 

 away, and many would take wing before the fowler could reach 

 them to perform his " Jack Ketch" duty ; but when once the 

 pochards fall within these pens, they cannot get out, though there is 

 no covering at the top ; the form of the pochard, with its short wings, 

 and legs so far abaft, precluding the possibility of its rising from so 

 confined a space ; besides which, when the flight is large, they fall 

 into the pens in such numbers, and are so buried en masse, that 

 more than half are nearly dead ere they come to the hands of the 

 break-neck assistants. When a successful fall is made, and .the 

 fowler has summoned his attendants to assist in despatching the 

 captured birds ; he who is quickest and most skilful at neck- 

 breaking is the most useful, and is looked upon as the most 

 accomplished fowler. It would seem a very simple and easy art, 



