i;6 THE COMMON LINNET 



is of service to foresters, farmers and gardeners ; inasmuch as the 

 more the birds consume the fewer there will be for distribution 

 over cultivated land. On the latter ground they do but little 

 harm, the most that can be laid to their charge is occasional descent 

 on newly-sown seeds, but these are so exceptional as not to materi- 

 ally injure the crops. Besides, the birds are so much in request 

 by cage-bird fanciers that bird-catchers so thin their number in 

 autumn and winter that they are prevented unduly increasing, while 

 in many districts the common linnet becomes rarer and rarer as 

 the years roll by, so that the smaller denizens of the woodlands and 

 fields are not dependent for decimation upon the hawks, owls, jays 

 and magpies, but really is inducted by those enslaving the wild 

 birds of the country as cage-birds. The linnets are usually caught 

 by means of fall-nets and call-birds, of which we subjoin a diagram 

 as set, and known as a Ground Clap Net 1 (Fig. 106), though there are 

 other more elaborate devices. 



The ground clap net shown in the diagram is that we have seen 

 in most general use by bird-catchers, particularly for linnets, etc., 

 and is laid as follows : 



The right or left (as the person is right or left-handed) hand net 

 it spread out (y), and the two chief pegs driven in (c), where the 

 staves are attached by a loop of strong cord so as to act as hinges 

 (e) ; the end pegs are then driven in (d), and the ends of the bottom 

 line (b) made fast to these pegs and also the ends of the top line 

 (a). The other net is then spread parallel to the first laid and 6 

 in. less than the length of both staves so as to overlap that 

 extent when " clapped " over the netting ground (m), and pegged 

 down in the same way as the other net. The forked line (/) is then 

 tied to each top end of the staves (g), and exactly in the centre of 

 the forked line the pull line is knotted. The pull line is continued 

 30 yds. or more from the forked line where the bird-catcher stands. 

 In some cases a play-bird is employed, particularly for linnets, 

 goldfinches, and other small birds in repute as cage-birds, when 

 what is known as a " playstick " is used. This playstick con- 

 sists of three parts, the ground peg formed of a piece of hard wood 

 about 7 in. long, sharpened at the lower end and with a round 

 hole close to the top for passing the playline through. Just under 

 this hole a square aperture is made in which a flattened point 

 brass tube is to work, and in the other end a twig is affixed. On this 

 twig the playbird is tied by a brace two loops intersecting each 

 other and tied on one piece of string with a knot in the centre. 

 The head and body of the playbird is thrust through, so that a 

 loop catches it on each side and in front of the wings, the legs and 

 tail being thrust through the other. Thus one loop comes on each 



1 First figured similarly in Mr. Montagu Brown's Practical Taxidermy > 

 and also in Practical Trapping, p. 66. 



