PERSIAN METHODS OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL. 383 



caug-lit in this manner; and on favourable nights as many as fifty- 

 head of fowl are sometimes taken by one boat's crew on a single 

 nig'ht's excursion. Holmes mentions one locality where there are 

 twelve or thirteen boats constantly employed during- the season in 

 this particular branch of wild-fowling. The neighbourhood not 

 offering very promising advantages to cultivation of the land, and 

 the inhabitants not possessing much spirit for such advancement, 

 they depend, chiefly, for their subsistence, at certain seasons, upon 

 the result of their midnight operations ; and the fowl so captured 

 furnish an important article of food for the inhabitants. 



The general average price of wild-ducks in those parts is 3^d. per 

 pair, and of coots 2|d. per pair.* 



* Holmes's Sketches on the Shores of the Caspian. 



