36 BIED LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



to catch the bird before he has time to settle ; if he touches 

 the net with his feet, he is off instantly. 



The next process is to put out the " brace bird." This 

 bird always wears his brace, with a swivel attached, con- 

 sisting of a piece of string made into a kind of double halter, 

 and put over the bird's head, and the wings and legs are 

 passed through, the feathers falling over, and rendering 

 it invisible. The brace bird is then put on his " flur-stick ; " 

 this is a straight stick, which, by means of a hinge at its 

 lower end, is made to rise and fall at the will of the bird- 

 catcher by means of a string. 



Then, when any bird is seen coming, the flur-stick is 

 gently pulled up, the brace bird all the while standing on 

 the stick is made to hover with his wings and show himself. 

 This, of course, is to attract the wild birds to the place, 

 which purpose is also attained by " call birds " put out 

 round the net in cages, whose notes, especially when there 

 are others of their kind in the neighbourhood, attract great 

 numbers. Thus, no doubt, are procured those melancholy 

 festoons of Nature's choristers we see in the gamedealers' 

 doorways. Personally, we think that good as this little bird 

 may be at table, aux trufles, legislation should sternly pro- 

 scribe his presence there, or even his entombment alive in 

 any of the cruel little cages with which some of us associate 

 him. He should be as sacred to us music-loving nations 

 of the West as doves were to the Greeks or the Ibis to 

 Egyptians. This same " seraph of the sylvan choir " is a 

 bird of strong passions, and often stirred by love or hate. 

 The fowler, with the gross practicalness of his kind, knows 

 this, and takes a mean advantage. If the season suggests 

 the predomination of the gentler sentiment, then a female 

 decoy, whose wings are tied and a lime twig placed over her 

 is used. The male in paying his court thus gets hopelessly 

 entangled. 



But if there is a note of challenge in the song we hear 

 coming from under the clouds, " then," says a learned fancier, 



