Wild Fowl and Men 263 



been made many thousands of years ago, for I suppose the 

 snare is probably one of the oldest methods of taking game. 

 What could have been simpler for primitive man than to 

 twist fibers or grasses into a line, to fashion a running loop, 

 and then to sit and tighten the noose about creatures which 

 Would not allow a close enough approach so that he could 

 seize them with his hands or strike them with his club. Fish, 

 birds, or mammals could be taken that way by a patient 

 Watcher. Then, someday, an impatient hunter must have 

 realized the possibility of fastening the line in such a way 

 that the animal would spring a device which would tighten 

 the loop and make constant attendance unnecessary. And 

 surely even a Neanderthal or Piltdown man might compre- 

 hend that a fence of brush would lead the creature to the 

 noose. Nothing more could be done to improve the snare; 

 the results would be bettered only by skill in placing the 

 contrivance. I could look back and think of myself as an awk- 

 ward, stooping, long-haired, and dirty man, clothed in an 

 animal skin and parting the cattails with my club, as I looked 

 through the growth to see if any fowl or muskrat had wan- 

 dered into my trap. I suspect that the picture would have 

 been much the same whether in the fens of Great Britain, 

 the tundra of Alaska, or the marshy lakes of Africa, for all 

 hunting tribes must have taken to snares as naturally as to 

 clubs and spears. The special hunting devices originated by 

 tribes and nations all over the world probably came later 

 than the simple snare. I watched the one in the marsh, but 

 it was never sprung and the vegetation covered it at last. 

 What a documentary film could have been made of the 

 methods of taking waterfowl that I had seen or read about! 

 Scenes might be reconstructed to show the Egyptians hunt- 

 ing with their spears, using their cats, one of their sacred 

 animals, as retrievers. The film could portray the falconry of 

 the Middle Ages with all the pomp and brilliance of that 

 ceremony, the horsemen of the South American pampas 



