190 BTRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



which will be swept by the ash stick when released, and the 

 watcher then retires to his secure hiding-place with the end 

 of the string in hand. On a sufficient number of birds 

 having settled, the string is pulled, the peg is withdrawn, 

 and the sapling flies round, carrying destruction to every- 

 thing in its path. The great advantage of this villainous 

 device is its silence. 



Were the English " velveteens " less conservative and 

 orthodox in his views of what the limits of his duties are, 

 he might take a hint from the " foreigner " in trapping blue 

 rocks. The woods in Northern Italy are often bisected by 

 narrow and deep road-cuttings made by the charcoal burners 

 and others. Pigeons are taken here in vast numbers by 

 a method which must be seen to be fully understood. From 

 tree to tree in the road-cutting a light but strong net will be 

 hung. Small boys then take up their position on stages 

 built among the branches of neighbouring trees, and whistle 

 and call as the birds are returning to roost. When a flock 

 approaches, such a boy whirls round his head a stuffed pigeon, 

 having a weight in its head and a string near the tail, by 

 which he holds it and hurls it at the net. The wild birds, 

 accepting its treacherous guidance, swoop down and dash 

 into the net, in which they are at once entangled. A hundred 

 or more will be taken at once by this device. It is, perhaps, 

 too much to expect of the guardians of our woods and 

 coppices that they should perch themselves in the fork of 

 a convenient oak and there twirl the disc and drop the net 

 as the raiders of corn shocks and! pea haulm go homewards 

 down chestnut-covered pathways after their foraging expedi- 

 tions. Yet, where pigeons migrate at certain seasons in 

 large bodies, good work is done by a method nearly allied 

 to that above described. 



If we suppose ourselves standing in a gap on the sky-line 

 of the Pyrenees or Savoy Alps at daybreak, we shall see how 

 the mountain herdsmen replenish the village markets and 

 provide the chief ingredient of pigeon pate for wandering 



