FLAMINGO CATCHING IN LOWER EGYPT. 137 
When the proper time arrives, the men employed at this work, 
to the number of five or six in each boat, go in search of the 
Flamingoes at night, and as soon as they can make them out, 
standing where the water is from 18 inches to 8 feet deep, they 
stop the boat about a hundred yards off and, commence to lay 
down their nets and apparatus under water, driving into the 
ground for half their length the little stakes to which they are 
attached. They then stick into the ground under water a lot of 
slender reeds about a yard high, and at a little distance apart, so 
as to form a sort of lane about 10 or 12 yards wide, leading up to, 
and passing on either side of, the nets. All being in readiness, 
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FLAMINGO NETS IN LOWER EGYPT. 
the men row round and put up the Flamingoes, driving them 
towards the lane of reeds, where, the water being comparatively 
shallow, they are almost sure to alight. At a given signal the 
men who are holding the cords pull over the nets and a number 
‘of birds are caught, when the men hurry up to get hold of them. 
‘Crossing their wings over their backs (like our English decoymen 
do when they want to keep alive the ducks captured by them), 
they put them into the boats and take them away for sale to 
Damietta, Matarieh, and Port Said, where they are disposed of 
at a price varying from 6 to 7 and 8 Egyptian piastres apiece. 
ZOOLOGIST.—APRIL, 1889. M 
