8 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



ancient fowler, and was chiefly useful in taking wild-fowl on the surface 

 of the water.* It was a machine very similar to a French quail-pipe : 

 that used for water-fowl was not unlike a modern decoy-pipe. The 

 art of decoy, however, was not then known : the birds were not 

 decoyed into the argumentum, but driven. 



The panthera^ was a kind of purse or drag net, used by ancient 

 fowlers for taking water-fowl, and was the largest description of net 

 known for the purpose. Wild-fowl were captured in the panthera on 

 land, whilst feeding at night in the fens; it was also hung upon poles, 

 and extended along the banks of rivers, according to the turns of the 

 current, the fowler, meanwhile, keeping watch over the movements of 

 the birds. I 



The curbaculum was simply a trap employed by the fowlers of old, 

 for taking birds in the snow. 



Ancient fowlers are said to have been gifted with an art of enchant- 

 ment, whereby birds were enticed into snares, or otherwise became 

 captives to the fowler's artifices, through attracting their attention, 

 or amusing them in such a manner as to excite their curiosity ; and 

 for this purpose the fowlers used to clothe themselves in feathered 

 jerkins, 1 1 and dance with particular motions and gestures in the 

 presence of such birds as they sought to capture. 



The methods of taking wild-fowl with horse-hair nooses and springes 

 are very ancient. They were used by the Anglo-Saxons both by night 

 and day, and were employed in the fens as well as by the margins of 

 lakes, rivers, and pools, the snares being sometimes placed under 

 water. IF They were also frequently 'planted in plashes, made by 

 breaking the ice, because of the greater resort of wild-fowl to such 



* " Argumentum : Machina, qua aves in aquis capiuntur." Du Cange. 



" De argumentis vero, per quse aves possunt capi super aquam." Charta Childe- 

 berti Regis pro Monasterio 8. Germani, Parisiensis. 



f " Panthera posita ab aucupe." Ulpicmus. 



Panthera is also a term applied by the lower Normans to nets used for taking all 

 kinds of birds, whether land or waterfowl : " Normanni inferiores Pantiere vocant rete 

 quo capiuntur aves maritimae." Martinii. 



Panthera is also a word used by Peter de Crescentius (who flourished about 

 the middle of the 13th century), in his " Opus Buralium Commodorum sive de 

 Agricultural' 



J " Andr. Floriac. in Mirac. S. Bened. MSS., lib. iii. : Dum casses retium, quas 

 vulgo Pantheras vocant, hinc inde porrectis amicibus fluminis alternis protenderet 

 ripis, et volucrum pervigil excubitor prsestolatur capturam, etc." Du Cange. 



" Curbaculum : Instrumentum ad capiendas aves tempore nivium." Petrus de 

 Crescentius, lib. x., De Agricultura. 



|| Fosbroke's " Encyclopaedia of Antiquities." 



([ Blome's " Gent's. Eec," 



