BIRD-CATCHING. 



ascendency by this call or invitation is so 

 great, that the wild bird is stopped in its 

 course of flight ; and, if not already ac- 

 quainted with the nets, lights boldly with- 

 in 20 yards of perhaps three or four bird- 

 catchers, on a spot which otherwise it 

 would not have taken the least notice of. 

 Nay, it frequently happens, that if half a 

 flock only are caught, the remaining half 

 will immediately afterwards light in the 

 nets, and share the same fate ; and should 

 only one bird escape, that bird will suffer 

 itself to be pulled at till it is caught ; such 

 a fascinating power have the call-birds. 



The nightingale is not a bird of flight, 

 in the sense the bird-catchers use this 

 term. Like the robin, wren, and many 

 other singing birds, it only moves from 

 hedge to hedge, and does not take the 

 periodical flights in October and March. 



The persons who catch these birds 

 make use of small trap-nets, without call- 

 birds ; and are considered as inferior in 

 dignity to other bird-catchers, who will 

 not rank with them. The arrival of the 

 nightingale is expected by the trappers in 

 the neighbourhood of London the first 

 week in April : at the beginning, none but 

 cocks are taken ; but in a few days the 

 hens make their appearance, generally by 

 themselves, though sometimes a few males 

 come along with them. The latter are 

 distinguished from the females, not only 

 by their superior size, but by a great 

 swelling of their vent, which commences 

 on the first arrival of the hens. They are 

 caught in a net-trap, the bottom of which 

 is surrounded with an iron ring; the net 

 itself is rather larger than a cabbage-net. 

 When the trappers hear or see them, they 

 strew some fresh mould under the place, 

 and bait the trap with a meal-worm from 

 the baker's shop Ten or a dozen night- 

 ingales have been thus caught in a day. 



The common way of taking larks, of 

 which so many are used at our tables, is 

 in the night, with those nets which are 

 called trammels. These are usually made 

 of 36 yards in length, and about six yards 

 over, with six ribs of packthread, which 

 at the ends are put upon two poles of about 

 16 feet long, and made less at each end. 

 These are to be drawn over the ground 

 by two men, and every five or six steps 

 the net is made to touch the ground, 

 otherwise it will pass over the birds, with- 

 out touching them, and they will escape. 

 When they are felt to fly up against the 

 net, it is clapped down, and then all are 

 safe that are under it. The darkest 

 nights are properest for this sport ; and 

 net will not only take larks, but all 



the net will r 



other birds that roost on the ground, 

 among which are woodcocks, snipes, par- 

 tridges, quails, fieldfares, and several 

 others. 



In the depth of winter, people some- 

 times take great numbers of larks by 

 nooses of horse hair. The method is 

 this : take 100 or 200 yards of pack- 

 thread ; fasten at every six inches a noose 

 made of double horse hair ; at every 20 

 yards the line is to be pegged down to the 

 ground, and so left ready to take them. 

 The time to use this is when the ground 

 is covered with snow, and the larks are 

 to be allured to it by some white oats scat- 

 tered all the way among the nooses. 

 They must be taken away as soon as 

 three or four are hung, otherwise the rest 

 will be frighted ; but though the others 

 are scared away just where the sports- 

 man comes, they will be feeding at the 

 other end of the line, and the sport may 

 be thus continued for a long time. 



Those caught in the day are taken in 

 clap-nets of 15 yards length, and two and 

 a half in breadth, and are enticed within the 

 reach by bits of looking-glass, fixed in a 

 piece of wood, and placed in the middle of 

 the nest, which are put in a quick whirling 

 motion by a string the larker commands ; 

 he also makes use of a decoy lark. These 

 nets are used only till the 14th of No- 

 vember ; for the larks will not dare, or 

 frolic in the air, except in fine sunny wea- 

 ther ; and, of course, cannot be inveigled 

 into the snare. When the weather grows 

 gloomy, the larker changes his engine, 

 and makes use of a trammel-net, twenty- 

 seven or twenty-eight feet long, and five 

 broad ; which is put on two poles, eigh- 

 teen feet long, and carried by men under 

 each arm, who pass over the fields, and 

 quarter the ground as a setting dog : 

 when they hear or feel a lark hit the net, 

 they drop it down, and so the birds are 

 taken. 



But the most singular species of bird- 

 catching is on the Holm of Ness, a vast 

 rock severed from the Isle of Ness by 

 some unknown convulsion, and only about 

 sixteen fathoms distance. It is of the same 

 stupendous height as the opposite pre- 

 cipice, with a raging sea between ; so that 

 the intervening chasm is of matchless 

 horror. Some adventurous climber reach- 

 es the rock in a boat, gains the height, 

 and fastens several stakes on the small 

 portion of earth which is to be found on 

 the top ; correspondent stakes are placed 

 on the edge of the correspondent cliffs ; 

 a rope is fixed to the stakes on both sides, 

 along which a machine, called a cradle^ 



