OKDER PASSERES. '583 



taken, grains and other aliments are cast into the bottom of 

 the hole, especially those of which they eat in preference. 

 They then take a piece of turf, a tile, or a stone of the size of 

 the hole, and place them on a sort of figure of 4, so arranged on 

 the hole that the bird cannot come to the bait without touching 

 the stick, and making the coverlet fall, which shuts them up in 

 the hole. To draw the blackbirds more effectually, a tame one 

 is sometimes fixed at the side of the snare, either on a stick, or 

 otherwise. This method succeeds well in winter, when the birds 

 are pressed for food, and will go any where in search of it. 



They use another mode of catching them in France, towards 

 the close of the vintage season. They choose in the coppices, 

 at no great distance from the vines, a straight and rather high 

 shrub, which they lop down to about five feet ; they pierce a 

 hole in it at about four feet and a half of its length. This 

 operation performed, they take another shrub at a distance 

 from the first about four feet. They strip it of all its branches, 

 and attach to the top a small packthread, about half a foot 

 long ; they tie to it a collar of horse-hair, formed in a knot. 

 They then take the upper extremity of the last shrub, and 

 bend it so that it advances almost to the other, and they pass 

 the collar into the opening made in the first shrub, drawing it 

 as far as the knot of the packthread , which comes to the level 

 of the hole. They have besides a small stick, about four 

 fingers long, formed on one end into a small hook, and rounded 

 towards the other, which terminates in a point. They insert it 

 a little into the small space which remains from the knot to tlie 

 edge of the aperture in the shrub, and keep it there rather 

 slack ; after which they stretch the collar above, which they 

 open into a circle, and rest flatly on the trap of the little stick. 

 The snare is then laid : they place above, by way of a bait, a 

 cluster of grapes, or some berries, of which the blackbirds are 

 very fond. As soon as they perceive this they come to peck, 

 and perching on the stick it gives way, the bent shrub resumes 

 its former position, and the bird is seized in the noose. 



Nothing so opposite as white and black ; yet we see the first 

 Vol. VI. 2 N 



