NETTING BIRDS ON THE WASH. 193 



Fulmar, evidently driven to the land by the gale of the 

 previous night. The poor Fulmar is dead, but the two 

 little Petrels are lively enough and discharge some oil 

 out of their mouth when taken in the hand. A Dunlin 

 and a brace of Wigeon are all the second net contains, 

 but a third has been more fortunate. Twenty Knots 

 are entangled in the meshes, some of them so intricately 

 that it is a tedious task to extricate them. A pair of 

 Short-eared Owls and a Sky Lark hanging side by side 

 tell us that migration has been going on during the 

 night. It is most curious how some of the birds have 

 been caught ; some are held by a leg alone, others are 

 wound round and round in a complete tangle, the fine 

 twine of the net being buried in some places deep under 

 the plumage. Some birds are caught by a wing alone, 

 others by both ; whilst yet again many are held by the 

 neck and the wing. Many of the birds are drowned, 

 having been caught before high water for be it known 

 these nets are nearly submerged at high tide others have 

 flown into the toils much more recently, as they hurried 

 along just above the surface of the sea. In the last net 

 we find three Golden Plovers, a Curlew, two Godwits, 

 a Redshank and several Dunlins. In some places the 

 nets are torn showing where a flock of Geese or Ducks 

 have passed clean through the toils, with such force and 

 rapidity do these birds pass along. It is generally only 

 the solitary Ducks and Geese that are caught, for the 



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