BIRD NOTES 89 



A WILY BIRD-CATCHER 



The following entry is copied verbatim from an 

 entry dated 27th December 1890 : 



"A wild day. This morning was exceedingly 

 wintry : wind east-north-east. The waste land now 

 being converted into a new recreation ground (now 

 building on), and which has been well sprinkled 

 with town refuse, was swarmed by some 500 Black- 

 headed Gulls. They were not only sharp-set, but 

 had found something in the shape of putrid herrings 

 that might be seen sticking out of the snow in a 

 very tempting fashion. No sooner were they dis- 

 turbed and driven away from one spot than they 

 settled on another. A number of Starlings, sharing 

 the spoil with the Gulls, were constantly harassed 

 by small boys with stones and steelfalls, and older 

 boys with guns." 



Not far off here, under the lee of the mill, a wily 

 bird-catcher, nicknamed "Duchess" Cubitt, had 

 spread a pair of clap-nets, made of herring-lint, each 

 twelve yards in length by four in width. The 

 ground had been brushed clear of snow and baited 

 with herring refuse. His quest was gulls. He 

 captured more than a hundred poor things, all of 

 which, save fifteen that I procured from him alive, 



