150 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



another piece of stick, about six inches long, was 

 tied by its middle. The flexible wand was then 

 bent forcibly downwards, one end of the little 

 stick overhead was passed under the arch, while 

 it was retained in this position, and at the same 

 time the bow prevented from springing upwards, 

 by its other extremity being placed against a 

 notch at the end of the stick which had been 

 fastened to the peg on the other side of the run, 

 across which it now lay, two or three inches from 

 the ground, and supported the noose. This, in 

 fact, constituted the trigger, which was to be 

 released when struck by the breast of the wood- 

 cock. 



The old man constructed the trap in much less 

 time than I have taken and how imperfectly to 

 describe it. Indeed, I feel that it is a subject 

 better suited to the pencil than to the pen. 



His last care was to weave the sedges on either 

 side of the run into a kind of screen so as to 

 weir the woodcock into the snare, and this he 

 accomplished with much skill and expedition. It 

 was now nearly dark, and we separated, after 

 arranging to meet again on the same spot early 

 on the following morning. I arrived there, how- 

 ever, some time before him, and found myself 

 threading my way through the willows just as 

 the grey dawn was beginning to appear on the 



