166 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



the country more or less covered with forest, and which 

 on account of ancient rights cannot be enclosed. Here 

 the art of noosing lingers ; the loop being insidiously 

 slipped over the bird's head while at roost. By constant 

 practice a wonderful dexterity may be acquired in this 

 trick ; men will snare almost any bird in broad daylight. 

 With many birds a favourite place for a nest is in a 

 hollow tree, access being had by a decayed knothole, and 

 they are sometimes noosed as they emerge. A thin 

 flexible copper wire is said to be substituted for large 

 game. This method of capture peculiarly suits the views 

 of the ornithologist, with whom it is an object to avoid 

 the spoiling of feathers by shot. 



Every now and then a bird-catcher comes along 

 decoying the finches from the hedges, for sale as cage- 

 birds in London. Some of these men, without any 

 mechanical assistance, can imitate the ' call ' note of the 

 bird they desire to capture so as to deceive the most 

 practised ear. These fellows are a great nuisance, and 

 will completely sweep a lane of all the birds whose song 

 makes them valuable. In this way some localities have 

 been quite cleared of goldfinches, which used to be com- 

 mon. The keepers, of course, will not permit them on 

 private property ; but in all rural districts there are wide 

 waste spaces as where two or more roads meet broad 

 bands of green sward running beside the highway, and 

 the remnants of what in former days were commons ; and 



