5 mph, but, once a roosting bird was sighted, speeds of 

 15 to 20 mph were often necessary to place the netter 

 in a position to attempt the capture. 



When a roosting pheasant was observed in the arc 

 of the floodlights, the driver immediately switched on 

 the hand-held spotlight, pinpointed the bird with the 

 spotlight beam, and simultaneously switched off the 

 floodlights. He then drove toward the bird, keeping it 

 centered in the spotlight beam until the netter jumped 

 from the truck and made his netting attempt. Most pheas- 

 ants were captured within 25 feet of the truck. Many 

 pheasants were captured at or within a few feet of their 

 roosting sites, but some birds walked or ran consider- 

 able distances before holding well enough for the netter 

 to capture them. If a pheasant flushed, it could be 

 "knocked down" at distances up to about 200 yards by 

 the spotlight beam if the bird was so oriented in flight 



that the beam of light reached its eye and temporarily 

 blinded the bird. 



When attempting to capture a pheasant, the netter 

 usually approached from the spotlighted, or blinded, 

 side of the bird. The net was placed over the pheasant 

 swiftly, with the hoop parallel to the ground, to lessen 

 the chance of injuring the bird, fig. 6. The actions of 

 the driver and the netter had to be closely co-ordinated 

 to obtain a high degree of efficiency in capturing pheas- 

 ants by night-lighting, and, in order to attain this ef- 

 ficiency, much operational experience was required. 



Because it was too time consuming to process each 

 pheasant as it was trapped, the captured birds were 

 placed in burlap holding bags until 10 or 12 had been 

 collected, fig. 1. The birds quieted down quickly and 

 remained in good physical condition if onlv one or two 

 pheasants were placed in each holding bag. Cocks and 



Ki 



g. 4. -The 110-volt switch box, with fuse, mounted on the wall of the truck alongside the generator. The electrical cable 

 that enters the switch hox at the lower left corner is the lead from the 110-volt power outlet of the generator. The 

 electrical cable that loaves the switch box at the upper right corner terminates in a female receptacle that con- 

 nects with a cable from tlic floodlight cluster. The flexible control cable is sho\TO attached to the circuit-breaker 

 arm of the switch box. The receptacle and plug for the liand-held spotlight are shown connected at the far right. 



