106 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



there is snow in the forest the net should be white, but if 

 the ground is bare, green or some other dark colour. This 

 net is also hung across a cattle path, the four corners secured 

 to bushes or to pine twigs inserted in the ground for the 

 purpose, by means of woollen threads of just sufficient 

 strength to maintain it in position. A stout silk line is 

 passed through the outermost meshes of the net all round, 

 and both ends secured to a neighbouring sapling. When 

 the capercailzie gets his head into the meshes he rushes 

 forward, the woollen threads are broken, the net drawn up 

 into a purse-like form, and the bird rolls over helpless with 

 his wings closely pressed together. 



Then again, many a plump young bird that deserved a 

 better ending has been cut off by the "stick-nat." This is 

 a net usually sixty or seventy fathoms in length, twenty or 

 thirty inches in depth, with the meshes some three inches 

 square. The " telnar," answering to the cord and lead lines 

 of our flue-net, consists of stout packthread, but instead of 

 being fastened to the web itself they merely run through the 

 outer meshes, and hence the net travels on them in like 

 manner as a curtain on a brass rod. Stout sticks previously 

 blackened by fire, and sharpened at the lower end for more 

 ready insertion in the ground, are fixed crosswise to the net,, 

 or rather to the "telnar," ten or twelve feet apart. The 

 "telnar" is about one-third shorter than the net itself, and 

 consequently there is a quantity of loose netting called " los 

 garn." On the net being set this loose netting is drawn up 

 in folds to the cross sticks, and when the capercailzie runs 

 into the net, the "los garn" forms a sort of bag about the 

 bird, making escape next to impossible. The fowler takes 

 his place in the centre of the netted circle, and by " lacking" 

 i.e. imitating the hen's cry attracts and generally secures- 

 the whole of the covey of young birds on whose haunts he 

 has placed the net after flushing them. The pullets only 

 come to the pretended calling of the old birds when they are 

 very young. 



