NOTES AND QUERIES. 187 
two halyards of each net are hooked to a single trigger, and all is then 
ready. The above preparations having been completed to the chief's satis- 
faction, he pointed out to us the spots where the flag boys were posted to 
the distance of nearly a mile on either side along the converging hills, and 
then proceeded to ascend to his post in a very tall beach on the rising 
ground to the right, and about fifty yards to the northward. J ust below 
the ridge to the south, and almost in line with the nets, were some small 
huts only high enough to creep into, covered with bracken and intended 
for hiding places. While we stood about chatting and waiting for the 
Pigeons, we were warned that we must only shoot at such Pigeons as 
turned back from the net, and to the westward, the latter caution being 
given in the interest of the chief in the tree. Ata quarter-past seven we 
began to hear the cries of the flagboys in the distance announcing that the 
first of the birds were in sight, and the fears we had entertained of a 
possibly blank day were dispelled. Ina couple of minutes a shrill whistle 
from the chief was the signal for everyone to rush into hiding. A few 
seconds of breathless suspense, and the silence was broken by a roar 
such as I have only heard equalled by a chorus of howling monkeys in 
the depths of a Paraguayan forest. Before we could realize what was 
the matter, there was a rushing sound overhead and a simultaneous 
collapse of the four nets (one was out of order) with seventeen grand blue- 
rocks fluttering on the ground underneath them. [ admit that it was not 
perhaps sport, but it certainly was most exciting. The net men rushed 
out and retrieved them. Tach bird as it was gathered was plucked of 
the feathers of one wing, and put into the front pocket of a sort of apron 
the net men wore, and eventually transferred to a receptacle formed of 
boughs built round the trunk of a tree. As soon as the last bird was 
gathered the nets were smartly hoisted again, as the shouts of the flag- 
boys were already heard. In a few minutes, another whistle and another 
rushing of wings, but, instead of the rattle of the falling nets, there ensued 
a perfect hurricane of the most awful Basque oaths from the nest in the 
beech tree, proclaiming to the initiated that the Pigeons had passed over 
the nets and gone on their way untouched. And so the game went on, 
with varying success, until at half-past eight six dozen and a half of birds 
had been netted, and we were obliged to leave. We found that shooting 
was impossible without interfering with the legitimate business, and only 
fired one shot, scoring a miss. The Pigeons were first sighted by the 
extended flagboys, who, by waving their flags, confine the birds to the 
valley, and force them in the direction of the nets. As they approach, 
the chief shows himself in his nest, utters the roar I have mentioned, and 
throws out a wooden disk about six inches in diameter; this the Pigeons 
take for a Hawk, and, swooping to avoid it, plunge into the nets. One 
of the lessees of the establishment, M. Goyéche, was on the ground on 
