PERSIAN METHODS OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL. 381 



These proceedings succeed best on dark and stormy nights : they 

 are impracticable by daylight, moonlight, or at any other time than 

 when the darkness is sufficient to obscure the nets from observation. 

 The Persian fowler, by this means, is sometimes enabled to take ten 

 or fifteen wild-ducks during the night, unaided by any other assis- 

 tants than his decoy-birds. Numbers of wild-fowl are thus captured 

 during the season, in the lakes and swamps abounding along the 

 coasts both of Gheelaun and Mauzunderoon.* 



Another of the fowlers' schemes employed in the Persian fens, is 

 that of spreading a large net at the brink of a small pool, or on a 

 marais ; and, by means of a cord and flexible staff, raising* it to a per- 

 pendicular position, so that on a slight pull it falls, and covers a large 

 space of ground. The fowler, having pitched his net, conceals him- 

 self in reeds, rushes, or other ambuscade ; taking care to keep the 

 leading cord in connection with his net tight, and looped to a stake 

 by his side. A few decoy-fowl are stationed outside the immediate 

 scope of the net ; and the fowler, on discovering that a number of wild 

 ones are within reach of the meshes of his snare, by casting off the cord 

 by which it is held in its upright position, it suddenly falls, or is 

 drawn over such birds as are within range ; which, on attempting 

 to escape, thrust their heads through the meshes, and are thus com- 

 pletely ensnared.f This method is practised by twilight or moon- 

 light, rather than by darkness. 



There is yet another device of the Persian fowler, and which may 

 be considered the most ingenious of the three, though it can only be 

 performed on dark nights. Three persons embark in a small canoe, 

 one of whom sits astern and devotes his whole attention to the man- 

 agement and steering of the boat j another, generally a boy, occupies 

 a position in the waist of the canoe, holding in his hands a circular 

 plate of bell-metal, upon which he keeps up a rapid succession of 

 strokes with a small staff; the third occupant of the canoe stands at 

 the prow, close beside a curiously constructed apparatus formed of 

 felt and wool ; but having a firm and fire-proof hearth, on which a 

 small fire is kept burning during fowling operations, the fuel con- 

 sisting of cotton stuff, or tow, steeped in naphtha. 



The apparatus thus fitted is placed in the bows of the canoe, when 

 a reflector is fixed to a socket at the back of the machine, in such a 

 position that the light from the burning naphtha is cast directly in 



* Travels in Persia. f Holme?. 



