SPRINGES. 217 



wildfowl, often used in Ireland, though scarcely 

 lawful to describe, is not only a very effective 

 means of capture, but is extremely simple in its 

 construction. It is made as follows : 



Stick a pliant wand of a yard and a half in length 

 firmly into the earth ; bend it down till the ends of 

 a short cross-stick attached to it, and which may be 

 four inches long, catch (as shown in the woodcut) 

 in the notches cut to receive them in two stout 

 pegs driven firmly into the ground, and showing a 

 couple of inches above the surface. Pass the fine 

 wires that are attached to the cross-stick over a 

 slight nick in the top of each peg, and place the 

 running nooses flat on the soil for Snipes, edgeways, 

 as in sketch, for Ducks. When a bird is snared, the 

 little stick between the upright is freed at once, the 

 wand flies upwards, and the victim is strangled.* 

 This is all done so quickly and quietly that the 

 captive is not missed by his companions, though he 

 dangle above them. By increasing the strength of 

 the springe Ducks and Teal may be taken with it ; 

 and I have known half a dozen Ducks to be found 

 strung up by the neck all of a row in the morning. 

 Traps, fish-hooks, and ordinary snares are never 

 successful with wildfowl unless they can be arranged 

 as above, for a struggling bird will at once terrify all 



yard or more away from the fence, and then springs into the hedge 

 bottom, as if to look through before passing on, and it is in the act of 

 jumping that she is taken. If a hare has been thus captured, and 

 the noose and peg removed, a trodden circle will be seen at the spot, 

 should the ground be damp, beaten down by the animal's feet in its 

 violent attempts to escape. 



* A modification of this snare, somewhat differently set, will be 

 found described and figured by Mr. Harting in his " Ornithology of 

 Shakespeare," p. 229. 



