THE WILD-FOWLER. 



CHAPTER I. 



FOWLING. 



" Aucupium felix festinaque copia prseda." 



BAEG^US, DE AUCUPIO : ANNO 1566. 



IN Greek this sport is termed 6pvi9o9f]pa in Latin, aucupium, from 

 avis, a bird ; and capio, I take. It signifies the art of decoying, 

 capturing, or killing birds ferce natures, by means of decoy-ducks, 

 dogs, guns, rapacious birds, nets, snares, bird-lime, or other artifice ; 

 and it may be used either upon land or water.* 



The Saxon dialogue upon the Art of Fowling is thus expressed : 



Q. How do you catch birds ? 



A. I catch them many ways : sometimes with nets, sometimes 

 with nooses, sometimes with bird-lime, sometimes by whistling, some- 

 times with hawks, sometimes with gins.f 



* Markham thus defines the art : " Fowling is an art of discerning and under- 

 standing how to take all manner of fowle ; and it is to bee applied or used two 

 severall waies that is to say, either by enchantment or enticement, by winning or 

 wooing the fowle unto you with pipe, whistle, or call, which either beguileth them 

 with their own voyce, or amazeth them with the strangenesse of the sound ; or else 

 by engine, which unawares surpriseth and entangleth them." Hunger's PrevenUon, 

 or the Art of Fowling ; by Gervase Markham : A.D. 1655. 



Blome gives the following definition : " Fowling is an art for the taking all 

 manner of fowl, either by enticement or enchantment ; as calls, intoxicating baits, or 

 the like ; or else by guns, nets, engines, traps, setting dogs, &c." The Gentleman's 

 Recreations ; by Richard Blome : A.D. 1686. 



Udall, in his " Flowers of Latine Speaking," says : "Auceps, properly a fowler, and 

 aucupium is foulynge, and, by a metaphore, it is for all maner of wayes, to geat any 

 thynge by wiles, traynes, or craffce." 



Vide also " Bargseus, de Aucupio :" a Latin poem on Fowling, published at 

 Florence in the year ] 566. 



f " Quo modo decipii aves ? Multis modis decipio aves, aliquando retibus, aliquando 

 laqueis, aliquando glutino, aliquando sibilo, aliquando accipitre, aliquando decipula." 

 Cott. M.S. y Tib. A 3 ; Pint. p. 60. See also Turner's Hist. Anglo-Sax., vol. iii. 



