168 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



no means ready to shrink before the spell of that dread 

 word. Far too much " sport " with the gun is nothing but 

 poaching at its worst, while the silent crafts of the woods 

 so readily stigmatized, are often of higher science than the 

 thoughtless suppose, needing a longer apprenticeship to 

 qualify for success, and the possession of more self-control, 

 more temper and judgment, with better eyesight and readi- 

 ness than the " gunner " nowadays is called upon to display. 



" The corn-land loving quail," as Dray ton has it, may 

 serve us as an instance of a game bird, eagerly trapped and 

 snared wherever its presence is known and its culinary 

 qualities appreciated. Those crates densely packed with 

 unhappy victims that we see in the great poultry markets 

 of the kingdom are usually from the warm shores of the 

 Mediterranean. There the harvest of these small birds is 

 one of the most important of the year, and men, women, and 

 children have a busy time of it along the fertile shores of 

 Sicily and up the changing Adriatic, capturing the quails 

 in long nets as they arrive from the southward, boxing them 

 in dark, shallow cases, where the faint light prevents them 

 from indulging in the pugnacity of their species, and the 

 low canvas roof puts a stop to the possibility of their 

 courting suffocation by piling themselves three or four deep, 

 or rubbing the feathers from their heads. 



The plan of action is as follows. When the great annual 

 migration sets in from the southward, and the flocks start 

 on their long and dangerous journey from the African coast, 

 the watchful " chasseurs " on the northern shores prepare 

 a welcome for the wanderers which is more complete than 

 kind. All along the edge of the tide, just above high- water 

 mark, poles are erected at intervals of ten or twelve feet 

 apart, and standing four feet from the ground. On the 

 landward side of these slight notches are cut, in which rest 

 the upper strands of long nets a little over three feet high, 

 and often extending as far as half a mile along the brink of 

 the sea. 



