HOW BULLFINCHES ARE CAUGHT. 285 



and strike down all those which happen to be 

 travelling low enough to come in contact with 

 it. Of course, success depends to a considerable 

 extent upon the judgment and skill of the man, 

 who makes the net describe its half -circle by a 

 sudden pull upon the hauling-line. An experienced 

 hand has been known to kill seventy or eighty 

 dozen Larks in a single day. 



As some indication of the abundance of bird- 

 life on the Downs in the late autumn, a good day's 

 sport with the clap-nets round Brighton yields eight 

 or ten dozen Linnets, ten or twelve dozen Green- 

 finches, two or three dozen Redpolls, seven or eight 

 Goldfinches, and probably a Siskin or two, and a 

 few Cirl-Buntings or Bramble-Finches. 



Occasionally a wild hybrid between a Green- 

 finch and Linnet, Goldfinch and Greenfinch, Gold- 

 finch and Linnet, Twite and Linnet is caught. 



Sparrow-hawks and other members of the Fal- 

 conidse are sometimes caught in the act of stooping 

 at the poor little "Jackey" or u flur" birds, and 

 short shrift quickly follows their entanglement in the 

 fatal meshes. Rooks, too, are occasionally bagged 

 as they fly low over the nets, which suddenly rise 

 like a pair of huge, all- enveloping jaws to encom- 

 pass their destruction. 



Bullfinches are caught by many cottagers in 

 Kent and Sussex during the winter months with 

 the kind of trap shown on page 287. A call- 

 bird is placed in the lower compartment of the 

 cage, and the upper one is baited with privet 

 berries, which can be easily reached by the un- 

 wary victim through the open doorway shown in 

 the picture. The trap is hung up in a tree, and 

 as soon as a bird enters to partake of the good 

 things provided by the benevolent peasant, its weight 



