BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 123 



have caught it, but would not draw the nets and 

 have the trouble of resetting them for so worth- 

 less a bird. "But I'll take him the next time," 

 he said vindictively. "I didn't know he was such 

 a handsome bird." Unfortunately, the shrike 

 soon flew away, and passing linnets dropped down, 

 drawn to the spot by the twitterings of their 

 caged fellows, and were caught; and so it went on 

 for a couple of hours, we conversing amicably 

 during the waiting intervals. For now he re- 

 garded me as a friend of the bird-catcher. Lin- 

 nets only were caught, most of them young birds, 

 which pleased him; for the young linnet after a 

 month or two of cage life will sing; but the adult 

 males would be silent until the next spring, 

 consequently they were not worth so much, al- 

 though the carmine stain in their breast made 

 them for the time so much more beautiful. 



I remarked incidentally that there were some 

 who looked with unfriendly eyes on his occupa- 

 tion, and that, sooner or later, these people would 

 try to get an Act of Parliament to make bird- 

 catching in lanes, on commons and waste lands 

 illegal. "They can't do it!" he exclaimed ex- 

 citedly. "And if they can do it, and if they do 



