210 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



in " A History of Paganism in Scotland," its use in the 

 ancient Pictish Kingdom. 



Across the water, in France, it was stated lately, in the 

 Shooting Times, a clever and artistic method of taking black 

 duck is practised, which might be adopted with success in 

 other regions besides the neighbourhood of Cape Griz-nez, 

 its chief home. The quarry is captured in this manner: 

 At low water, or very near it,, the fishermen, who chiefly use 

 this method during their enforced inactivity in winter, go 

 down to the sandy flats, and there selecting one of those beds 

 of shell fish which must be familiar to all who have any 

 experience of shore shooting, they drive a number of stakes 

 into the mud, each stake being about three feet long and 

 standing clear of the " flats," about two feet. To the tops of 

 these, which stand in an oval shape and parallel to the 

 coast, is stretched a long, large, fine-meshed net, as tight 

 as it will go, and bound to the stakes by cords. To seaward 

 of this a narrow, upright wall of net is also fixed in a crescent 

 shape, its purpose merely being to act as a stop net, and to 

 prevent the floating out to deep water of any dead ducks 

 which may come loose from the main net. The latter, it 

 will be noted, is stretched horizontally over a considerable 

 space of the birds' choicest feeding ground. Matters having 

 been thus arranged, the men return to their huts. While 

 they smoke and amuse themselves the tide comes in, and 

 with it come the black duck eager for food, and diving 

 continually as the shore is neared. Little by little they 

 approach the fatal spot, and the water now being two feet 

 above the snares no harm is dreamt of. They swim and dive 

 this way and that till at last the toil is under them. The 

 leader has perhaps brought up a delicate morsel from the 

 very limit of safety outside the net, and swallows it on 

 the surface before his admiring companions. He prepares 

 for another dive, but now the tide has drifted him over the 

 meshes. Down goes his head, and with a whisk the tail 

 disappears. He plunges under, and in less time than it 



