PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 177 



provided they are not littered with those net- en tangling 

 bashes we have noted. " Poaching," Mr. Christopher Davies 

 remarks, "is a terrible thing. It is even more fascinating 

 than gambling, and in another way leads to as dire results. 

 The desire of sport, the attractions of a life which is idle 

 during the day, and busy only during the hours of darkness 

 the occasional large profits easily earned, the excitement 

 of evading the law make up a temptation which leads 

 many a decent man to drink, misery, and crime ; while his 

 starving family has to be supported by the parish." 



One species or another of partridge is found in every part 

 of the inhabited globe, and everywhere they are eagerly 

 sought after. We read, for instance, in Bellew's " Journal 

 of a Mission to Afghanistan," how natives of Candahar adopt 

 a very novel and successful method of enticing these birds 

 within reach. They wear a mask or long veil of a coarse 

 yellow cotton cloth, dotted all over with black spots, having 

 eye-holes and hanging in loose folds round the body of the 

 sportsman. Thus disguised, he creeps cautiously on hands 

 and knees towards the spot from whence the " chickor " calls. 

 The bird takes him for a leopard, an animal to which it has 

 the greatest aversion, and will collect all its species in the 

 neighbourhood with loud calls, and allow the make-belief to 

 approach while they scream and nutter about him, when 

 with gun or net, he can secure them with little difficulty. 



For catching partridges, a peculiar kind of bow is used 

 in Turkestan. It is formed of a long elastic rod, which is 

 stuck into the ground, and then bent down and held in that 

 position by a small catch arranged on a fork-shaped twig 

 stuck into the ground ; upon the catch are placed small sticks, 

 on which the noose of the bow is ranged, under which some 

 food is strewn, generally Indian corn. As soon as the bird 

 steps on one of the sticks placed on the catch, the bow 

 becomes detached, and he flies upwards with the latter, 

 caught in the noose either by the leg or head. There is 

 another original appliance for catching partridges in the 



