PLOVER-NETTING. 183 



PLOVER NETTING. 



Plover netting is an art little understood, save by 

 the few who make a living by it. These men are 

 naturally jealous of imparting information on the 

 subject, fearing lest the practice might become too 

 common, and their trade be damaged in con- 

 sequence. 



Sooner than show how the net is worked, or 

 allow it to be inspected by a curious stranger, I 

 have known a fowler pull his net, pack away all his 

 belongings in a sack, and desert for the day a 

 locality abounding in birds ; and doing all this in 

 order to keep secret the nature of his proceedings. 



I recollect some years since a gentleman whose 

 lands Plover visited in large numbers, paying not 

 a few pounds for one of these nets complete, 

 which, with some difficulty, he obtained by sending 

 a special emissary a long distance. His prize was 

 small, a couple of poles, half a dozen pegs, a finely 

 made net, a coil of rope, and that was all. What he 

 hoped to find a simple matter, namely, the arrange- 

 ment of it, baffled him entirely. He tried this way 

 and that to no purpose, and never captured a bird ; 

 nowhere was a lesson to be obtained, nor could 

 any sum of money in reason buy the necessary 

 directions from the fowlers near. Now, though a 

 pound or two may supply the requisite implements, 

 it requires practice, care and great nicety of hand 

 and eye to use them successfully. 



But, in order to satisfy myself, and by way of test, 

 I placed the following description last winter in the 

 possession of an intelligent gamekeeper. Either he 



