A GOOD DAY'S SPORT. 281 



nets the playsticks are instantly elevated by a pull 

 on the string commanding their movements, and 

 the "flur" or " Jackey " birds perch upon them 

 and survey their surroundings. As soon as the 

 strange birds have been lured within the nets the 

 playsticks are released, and the decoy birds flutter 

 to the ground, the nets being suddenly pulled over 

 the unwary visitors. So quickly can this be accom- 

 plished by an experienced hand that we witnessed 

 one man drop his playsticks and bring his nets 

 over a Linnet before it had actually alighted upon 

 the ground. 



The best call-birds are not used on the play- 

 sticks, but are kept constantly in the cages, and 

 are so valuable to the bird-catchers that at the com- 

 mencement of the season Goldfinches often change 

 hands at a pound apiece and Lmnets at from ten to 

 fifteen shillings each. 



Birds caught young and tamed in a cage are 

 considered far superior to those reared from the 

 nest for calling purposes, as their notes are more 

 perfect and consequently more seductive. 



The man in our picture on page 279 had caught 

 two dozen Greenfinches before eleven o'clock on the 

 morning we visited him, and told us that the best 

 day's sport he ever remembered having had supplied 

 him with eleven dozen birds, consisting of Larks, 

 Linnets, Redpolls, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Chaf- 

 finches, Titlarks, and Starlings. He seemed sur- 

 prised that anybody should take sufficient interest 

 in bird-catching to photograph it in operation ; and 

 when I jocularly told him that we had come to 

 Brighton to " immortalise " him, he looked alarmed, 

 and said he hoped our picture wouldn't turn up 

 against him at Lewes Assizes. 



In order to show how newly-caught birds are 



