ON BIRD-NETS. 359 



"Plover-Netting in the Fens. 



" The birds so taken are principally Dunlins, Knots, Ruffs^ and Reeves, 

 Redshanks, Lapwings, Golden Plover, and occasionally Curlews and Black 

 and Bar-tailed Godwits. On one occasion within the last twelve years a 

 small flock of nine Dusky Sandpipers or Spotted Redshanks (Totanus fuscus) 

 was so obtained, and I purchased them alive. 



" The nets are brought into requisition at Michaelmas (September and 

 October) and Lady-day (March and April), at which periods the birds visit 

 the washes. I personally know one fowler who has taken as many as four 

 dozen and nine Lapwings at one time, and twenty-four dozen in the course 

 of a single day. 



" Guyhirn and Whittlesea Washes were at one time periodically flooded ; 

 and many varieties of wildfowl visited them.'' An artificial method is now 

 used, " by means of a ' slacker,' or small sluice, through which water is 

 admitted, and an area of eight to twelve acres is thus covered with w^ater from 

 six to eight inches in depth. In one portion of this lake the fowler constructs 

 a small island, about thirty-six feet in length and from four to five feet in 

 breadth. Upon this his net is spread, which is stained the colour of the 

 ground, and its meshes proportioned to the size of the birds he is likely to 

 take, some nets having meshes one and a half inch, aud others three inches 

 in size. The fowler keeps some live ^ decoy ' birds (Lapwings or Ruffes) and 

 a dozen stufl^ed skins or ' stales ;' and these are placed on the island, close 

 outside the range of the net. The living birds being tethered, are made to 

 flutter their wings, whilst the fowler with a whistle imitates the call of the 

 birds on the Wash ; they are thus tempted to ahght on the island, and are 

 ultimately captured. The net covering the surface is so arranged that the 

 fowler (who sits at a distance of two hundred yards), by means of a string 



^ The Rev. Richard Lubbock, in ^ Fauna of Norfolk/ p. 68, says of young Ruffs : — '' Nets 

 were never used to take these birds in Norfolk."" 



VOL. II. 3 c 



