MARSH BIRDS. 95 



read of in " Le Moyeii Age et la Renaissance." The fowler 



had a dress of the colour of dead leaves ; his face covered 



with a mask of the same hue, having two holes in the place 



of eyes. As soon as he saw the woodcock he- went upon his 



knees, resting his arms upon two sticks to keep himself 



perfectly motionless. Whilst the woodcock did not perceive 



him, he advanced gently upon his knees to get near the bird. 



He had in his hand two small baquettes, the ends of which 



were dressed with red cloth. When the cock was stationary, 



he gently knocked the baguettes one against the other ; this 



noise amused or distracted the attention of the bird; the 



fowler approached nearer, and ended by casting over its neck 



a noose which he had at the end of the stick. " And know 



this," adds the French writer, " that woodcocks are the most 



silly birds in the world." No doubt the foregoing discredits 



their sagacity sorely, but quails in Afghanistan, as many 



travellers point out, are caught in much the same way. 



There a native sportsman dons a yellow shawl with large 



black spots, and by crawling on " all fours " into the barley 



fields or peach orchards, palms himself off on the credulous 



and curious birds as their mortal foe, a leopard, whom they 



surround and mob. At first sight none of the three species 



of our lesser snipe, the common bird of rushy patches, the 



gamey little jack snipe, or the scarcer great snipe, would 



seem to tempt the fowler's art. Erratic in habits, and 



curious in feeding grounds, there is no knowing with 



any certainty where to look for them at a given period. 



Watercourses and the little "canons" draining moisture 



from marshes or meadows, are likely spots in frosty weather. 



There the country people in Ireland catch a good many snipe 



in what they call "cribs," which are a kind of basket, 



roughly made of pieces of stick tied together in the shape of 



a pyramid. This is supported by an arrangement of forked 



sticks very similar to that used for the old-fashioned brick 



trap. This crib is set by the side of a spring, and a snipe 



going inside it releases the catch, and the basket falls over 



