FOW 



FOW 



during the night that the great and small 

 owls are taken, by counterfeiting the cry 

 of the mouse. 



To take the lark, nets are spread, and 

 about the middle of the net is placed a 

 looking-glass, to which a cord is attach- 

 ed, which, upon being drawn, makes the 

 glass turn round like the sails of a wind- 

 mill; during the time that the sun shines, 

 it is put in motion, its brilliancy attracts 

 the larks, whose feet get entangled in the 

 meshes of the nets. The clap-net is also 

 made use of during the night; this is a 

 large slender net, which is supported at 

 each end by two men upon long poles ; 

 they walk about the ground until they 

 hear the larks, when they let it fall, and 

 take by this means vast quantities. 



Water-fowl may be taken in great num- 

 bers, by nets properly managed. The net 

 for this purpose should be always made of 

 the smallest and strongest packthread 

 that can be got. The meshes may be 

 large, but the nets should be lined on 

 both sides with other smaller nets, every 

 mesh of which is to be about an inch and 

 a half square, each way, that as the fowls 

 strike either through them, or against 

 them, the smaller may pass through the 

 great meshes, and so straighten and en- 

 tangle the fowl. 



These nets are to be pitched for every 

 evening-flight of fowl, about an hour be- 

 fore sun-set, staking them on each side of 

 the river, about half afoot within the wa- 

 ter, the lower side of the net being so 

 plummed, that it may sink so far, and no 

 farther ; place the upper side of the net 

 slantwise, shoaling against the water, but 

 not touching it by nearly two feet; and 

 let the strings which support this upper 

 side of the net be fastened to small yield- 

 ing sticks set in the bank ; these, as the 

 fowl strikes, will give the net liberty to 

 play, and to entangle them. Several of 

 these nets should be placed at once over 

 different parts of the river, at about 

 twelvescore fathoms distance one from 

 another ; and if any fowl come that way, 

 the sportsman will have a share of them. 

 It is a good method, when the nets are 

 set, to go to places sufficiently distant 

 from them with a gun, to frighten them 

 towards the places where the nets are ; 

 and wherever any of the fowl are started 

 from, it may not be amiss to plant some 

 nets also there, to take them as they re- 

 turn. The nets are to be left thus placed 

 all night, and in the morning, the sports- 

 man is to go and see what is caught ; he 

 should visit the river first, and take up 

 what are caught there ; and, frightening 

 the rest away to the other places where 



his nets are, he is next to visit them, and 

 take what are there secured. - 



The Ceylonese have great plenty of 

 water-fowl wild on their island, and have 

 a very remarkable way of catching them, 

 which is this : the fowler enters a lake or 

 other water, which has a good bottom, 

 and is not very deep ; he puts an earthen 

 pot upon his head, in which there are 

 bored holes, through which he can see ; 

 he keeps himself so bent down in the wa- 

 ter, that only the pot is above the surface ; 

 in this manner he enters the place where 

 the wild-fowl are in clusters, and they 

 think it is only some floating block. He 

 then takes some one by the legs, and 

 gently draws it under water, and wrings 

 its neck till he has killed it ; then putting 

 it into his bag, which is fastened about his 

 middle, he takes hold of another in the 

 same manner, and so on, till he has got as 

 many as he can carry off, and then he goes 

 back in the same manner in which he 

 came, not disturbing the rest of the birds, 

 who never miss their companions, as they 

 seem to dive down for their diversion, 

 when the fowler pulls them under. In 

 places where this has been practised so 

 long, or so carelessly, that the birds are 

 shy, the fowler uses a gun ; but this he 

 does in the following manner : he makes 

 a screen of about five feet high, and three 

 feet wide, which he carries in one hand 

 straight between himself and his game, 

 and in the other hand his gun. The birds 

 are not alarmed at what appears only a 

 bush ; for this screen is always covered 

 with branches of trees, fresh "cut down, 

 and full of leaves, so that the sportsman 

 behind advances as near as he pleases, 

 and then putting the gun through some 

 crevice of the screen, he fires. See DECOY. 



FOWLING, was formerly used for the 

 pursuing and taking birds with hawks, 

 more properly called falconry. 



FOWLING piece, alight gun for shooting 1 

 birds. That piece is always reckoned 

 best, which has the barrel from 5 to 6 

 feet, with a moderate bore ; though every 

 fowler should have them of different sizes, 

 suitable to the game he designs to kill. 

 The barrel should be well polished and 

 smooth within, and the bore of an equal 

 bigness from one end to the other; which 

 may be proved by putting in a piece of 

 pasteboard, cut of the exact roundness of 

 the top ; for if this goes down without 

 stops or slipping, you may conclude the 

 bore good. The bridge-pan must be 

 somewhat above the touch-hole, and ought 

 to have a notch to let down a little pow- 

 der; this will prevent the piece from re- 

 , which it would otherwise be apt 



