PABTEIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 169 



Then commences the flight of the wandering birds, and 

 some morning they begin to drop in by twos and threes, 

 skimming swift and silent just over the surface of the water, 

 all too "dead beat" with fatigue, doubtless, to keep a watch 

 ahead, and so they dash headlong into the toils ashore, and 

 the net falling from its notches keeps them securely prisoners 

 in the meshes. These shore nets take males only for the first 

 fortnight', as the females, detained possibly by family cares, 

 do not migrate till later. The whole population are em- 

 ployed perpetually walking up and down the nets, replacing 

 them where disturbed upon their notches, and packing the 

 birds for the epicurean kitchens of Europe. 



"It is a far cry to Lahore ! " or rather, to Cabul, in this 

 instance ; but the Afghans devote so much attention to our 

 bird, and prize it so greatly, that their modes of capture 

 ingenuity itself must not be overlooked. 



Quails are caught, a recent writer informs us, principally 

 with the object of securing the cock birds, which are used 

 for combats. Quail and partridge fighting is as common in 

 Turkestan as game fighting used to be in this country, and as 

 goose fighting is at the present day in Russia. These fights 

 attract crowds of natives, on which occasion a good deal of 

 betting goes on, and a good, clever bird acquires celebrity. 

 There are special bazaars held in the towns, which are much 

 frequented, where young quails are sold, many of them bred 

 from noted birds with a pedigree. There are two chief 

 methods of catching quails resorted to by the natives. One 

 is simplicity itself. A hair noose is fastened to a lump of 

 clay, well worked together ; a number of these appliances 

 are scattered about the lucerne fields, which the quails are 

 fond of frequenting; the bird caught in the noose is pre- 

 vented from flying away owing to the weight of the clay, 

 and its getting easily entangled in the grass. 



The other method is more complicated. The sports- 

 man has to represent an eagle ; for this purpose he puts a 

 stick tied in the form of a cross to another stick, which he 



