WILD LIFE ON THE SUSSEX DOWNS 



downs made quite a considerable addition to their 

 scant wages by snaring these restless little creatures. 

 The snare consisted of a sod or two of down-turf so 

 arranged that the inquisitive bird could run underneath, 

 with a horsehair noose fixed to a peg at either end. For 

 some reason or other, the wheatear was in the habit 

 of betaking himself to these shelters when clouds 

 obscured the sun or when storms drove up. It was 

 surely a foolish credulity that induced him to accept so 

 dangerous a haven. In the good days — say towards 

 the end of the eighteenth century — enormous numbers 

 of these birds were snared in various parts of the South 

 Downs. Near Eastbourne, for instance, 1,840 dozen 

 were captured in a single season. A shepherd would 

 set fifty or sixty traps and expect to get a bird to each 

 during the course of the day. At the current price 

 of a penny per wheatear he did very well ; but then 

 the harvest was a very short one. Wheatears, by the 

 way, never flock, and even in the days when they were 

 plentiful more than four or six were seldom seen at 

 once. It was the custom among Eastbourne and other 

 folk of the down villages in those days, when they 

 wanted a dozen or so of wheatears, to visit the shep- 

 herds' snares, take what they required, and leave a 

 penny in each trap by way of fee. There are still 

 many Sussex men who understand wheatear trapping 

 perfectly well, and have snared hundreds of these birds. 

 I was talking to a down shepherd a year or so since, 

 who told me he had only given up the practice some 

 five years before. Latterly he had been getting 4^. 

 per dozen for his catches, but 2s. per dozen would 

 be a fair price twenty years ago. Another shepherd 

 informed me that fourteen years before he used to take 

 four or five dozen in a day, usually about the time 

 of wheat harvest. At this time, shortly before their 



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