THROUGH THE YEAR 209 



THE LINNET 



No small singing birds is more persecuted by the 

 trapper than the linnet, and yet, taking England as 

 a whole, no bird perhaps is commoner. A constant 

 winter hunting ground of the bird-catcher is the 

 saltings between the low shingly islet and the harbour. 

 I have see him there hammering in the stakes that 

 fix his wily nets. The saltings being no man's 

 land, and hid in a lonely corner of the islet, he can 

 work there without interruption. Perhaps the 

 only other figures within sight during the whole of 

 a winter day will be two or three forlorn searchers 

 after crabs or bait for sea fish on the great gleaming 

 flats when the tide is out ; and these will be kindred 

 souls, sympathisers with him. The man trudges 

 eight miles or more daily to and from the saltings, 

 carrying on his back the box for the wretched 

 captives ; and when the passage between the islet 

 and the mainland is rough he may have to wait the 

 best part of an hour for the ferry boat. The ferry- 

 man, like the crab catchers, may be a sympathiser 

 with this hunter with nets and sly snares, but he is 

 not going to cross the choppy water in a high wind 

 just to oblige a twopenny fare. So in rough, wet 

 weather the bird-catcher's trade is hard enough. 

 He who makes the small birds to suffer is not without 

 suffering of his own. 



In open weather, he complains, it is scarcely worth 

 a man's while to visit the spot. Goldfinches are 

 now forbidden him throughout the year ; and, 



