498 GLEANINGS FROM THE CALCUTTA MARKET. 



The vendors of Quail, Pig-eons and the miscellaneous Lark- 

 Wagtail-Pipit lot, always dignified by the appellation of ortolans, 

 are the people who have captured or aided in capturing them. 

 In the case of the shore and water birds it is different ; the 

 sellers are, as a rule, mere stall-keepers. The real fowlers come 

 in often before it is light, each bringing from fifty to a couple 

 of hundreds of snipe, snippets, plovers and ducks, dead and 

 alive, tied densely along a stick, 4 to 6 feet long, with an empty 

 space just big enough for the shoulder in the middle, and the 

 first act of the market consists of the haggling between the 

 fow T lers and the stall-keepers. Some of them seem to have stand- 

 ing arrangements with, or to be partners in, the stalls, and just 

 make over their birds to one or more of the vendors without 

 discussion, but in the majority of cases, vehement bargaining: 

 o-oes on. One dealer seizes one end of the stick, another the 

 other. The fowler holds on vigorously. Each successively 

 gives a little pull in his own direction. All scream, gesticulate and 

 use indifferent language at the tops of their voices. A stranger 

 w^ould certainly expect a pitched battle, but after a time every- 

 thing is arranged. Sometimes the parties cannot at first agree, 

 and the fowler will sit down and begin to sell on his own account, 

 or make a show of doing so, but this never lasts long. 



On the whole, the fowlers seem to me to get very fair prices. 

 I took a long time to find out what they do get, but succeeded 

 at last. I found that, if the dealer could sell 6 snipe for the rupee 

 he took 8 from the fowler — if he could sell a duck for 10 annas 

 he paid 7, but they sometimes make much larger profits, and 

 especially in the case of fancy articles, such as Geese and 

 Kuddy Shelldrake. I observe that the fowlers often sit down 

 beside the stall-keepers and watch the sales for some little 

 time. I suppose to keep themselves au fait of current prices 

 and ruling rates. 



A certain amount of dead Geese and Ducks that have been 

 shot, and gutted, have also been in recent times brought down 

 (but not, as far as I can learn, from any great distances) by the 

 E. I. R., E. B. JR., and Port Canning lines, but as yet these 

 receipts form a very insignificant portion of the supplies. Pos- 

 sibly, as the local production diminishes and prices rise, the 

 unlimited sources tapped by these lines may furnish a larger 

 contingent, and when they do so, it may be worth the while 

 of the railways to provide special carriages in which such birds 

 can be hung, designed on an ice-box principle to keep out 

 heat and enclosing a huge lump of ice to keep down the 

 temperature inside. 



A. 0. H. 



