METHODS OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL IN RUSSIA. 389 



is as follows : — He spreads his net on an open plain encompassed with 

 wood and water ; and having- leading- string-s attached to the net, 

 after the same manner as the English day net, he conceals himself 

 in a small hut formed of branches of trees, placed at some 

 distance apart from the net. He is also provided with a number of 

 dummies or stuflFed skins of g-eese, which he judiciously arrang-es in 

 various attitudes on the g-rass round about the nets ; and, having so far 

 completed his ai-rangements, he watches, from his place of conceal- 

 ment, the approach of his prey. By an ingenious whistle, made 

 of birchen bark, which he applies to his lips, he so accurately mimics 

 the gaggle of wild-g-eese that they seldom approach within* sound of 

 the false-call without being induced to alight among- the dummies. 

 On hearing- the call they wheel round in the air, as if surveying from 

 aloft the position of their supposed companions ; and, after making- a 

 few evolutions, come down among- the nets in gag-gles of hundreds 

 at a time, when numbers of them are immediately captured in the 

 of the day nets ; in addition to this, many others are taken on 

 rising to windward, in large nets fixed to lofty poles, probably re- 

 sembling the ingenious contrivances of the Siberians referred to in 

 an early part of this chapter. 



