104 TO TAKE BIRDS WITH BIRDLIME. 



may all lie within two fingers' breadth of the ground : 

 they must not touch one another. When you have 

 inclosed this bank, cut some small boughs or herbs, and 

 place them all round the water at the sides marked 

 C, L, Y, where the birds may drink, and this will oblige 

 them to throw themselves where the lime-twigs are, which 

 they cannot discern. Leave no place uncovered round 

 the water where the birds may drink, but that at B ; 

 then retire to your stand to conceal yourself, but so that 

 you may see all your lime-twigs, and when any thing is 

 caught, hasten to take it away, and replace the lime- 

 sticks where there is occasion. But as the birds which 

 come to drink examine the place where they are to 

 alight for it, they do not drop at once, but rest upon 

 some small trees, if there are any, or on the summits 

 of copse, and after they have been there some time, 

 move to some lower branches, and a little after alight 

 on the ground; in this case, you must have three or 

 four great boughs, like those represented at the side Y, 

 which you are to pitch in the ground at the best place 

 of access to the ditch, about two yards distant from the 

 water. Take off the branches from the middle nearly 

 to the top, and let the disbranched part slope towards 

 the water, make notches therein, at three fingers' dis- 

 tance from each other, in order to put in several small 

 lime-twigs, as you see by the plate. You must lay them 

 within two fingers' breadth of the branch, and so dis- 

 pose them in respect to one another, that no bird which 

 comes to alight thereon can escape being entangled ; it 



