208 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



anybody suffering any ill effects from, this plan, which seems 

 rather hazardous. The net used for trapping is usually a 

 large pulling-over one, like those in use by the bird-catchers 

 in the London suburbs. As it is used a long distance from 

 the shore, another has to be sunk at the spot to prevent the 

 ducks getting away by diving. The shallow water of the 

 lagoons, nearly always seven feet in depth, affords facilities 

 for fixing the nets, and live decoys are pegged down round 

 them ; the pull is up to three hundred yards in length, and 

 is worked from boats. 



Not only in the land of pigtails, but all over Asia, the 

 duck tribe migrate at various seasons, and are taken in 

 thousands. Mr. W. W. MacNair, who went in disguise 

 through Kafiristan, a country between the Hindu Kush and 

 Kunar ranges on the north-eastern side of Afghanistan, as 

 yet sealed to Europeans, speaking of the Bogosta valley, 

 says : " Between Daroshp and Gobor I noticed several 

 detached oval ponds, evidently artificial, which I was told 

 were constructed for catching wild geese and ducks during* 

 their annual flight to India, just before the winter sets in, 

 about the middle of October. The plan adopted, though 

 rude, is unique in its way, and is this. By the aid of narrow 

 dug trenches, water from the running stream is let into the 

 ponds and turned off when full ; the pond is surrounded by 

 a stone wall high enough to allow a man, when crouching, to 

 be unobserved ; over and across one-half or less of this pond 

 a rough trellis work of thin willow branches is put up ; the 

 birds on alighting are gradually driven under this canopy, 

 and a sudden rush is made by those on the watch. Hundreds 

 in this manner are daily caught during" the season. The 

 flesh is eaten, and from the down on their breasts coarse 

 overcoats and gloves are made, known as margaloon" 



Again, on the lakes in the Cabul highlands, in which, 

 during the rains, these birds abound, the natives adopt 

 another ingenious plan for their capture. A small hut, 

 covered with reeds and boughs of trees, is erected over 



