PLOVER NETTING IN THE FENS. Ill 



on Thetford warren; a female "having the usual 

 markings clearly depicted by light and dark shades." 



The following notes on plover-netting, as still prac- 

 tised on the opposite shores of the Wash, have been 

 most obligingly supplied me by Mr. T. W. Foster, 

 of the Wisbeach Museum, and from the novelty of the 

 method described, and the gradual relinquishment of 

 such arts and devices at the present day, cannot fail to 

 be interesting to many of my readers : 



PLOVER NETTING IN THE FENS. 



The capture of birds by means of a net has long been 

 practised by fowlers in the fens of Cambridgeshire, near 

 Wisbeach, and has, in days gone by, been a very lucrative 

 occupation. The birds so taken are principally waders, 

 and include dunlins, knots, ruffs and reeves, redshanks, 

 lapwings, golden plover, and occasionally curlews and 

 black and bar-tailed god wits. On one occasion within 

 the last twelve years a small flock of nine dusky sand- 

 pipers or spotted redshanks (Totanus fuscus) was so 

 obtained, and I purchased them alive. The Zoological 

 Society's Gardens have frequently been enriched by 

 fen-birds which have been caught by nets in this 

 locality. The nets are brought into requisition twice in 

 the year, viz., at Michaelmas (September and October) 

 and Lady-day (March and April) at which periods the 

 birds visit the washes. I personally know one fowler 

 who has taken as many as four dozen and nine lapwings 

 at one time, and twenty-four dozen in the course of a 

 single day. The market price of this species is sixpence 

 each.* Guyhirn and Whittlesea washes were at one time 



* Although, compared with the golden plover, not ranking very 

 high as a delicacy for the table, the lapwing appears to have been 

 greatly esteemed in former times. In the " Account Book" of the 

 Purser of the priory of Durham (1530 to 1534), we find "3 plovers 



