ON BIHD-NETS. 363 



Netting Quails in the Fens. 



The modern method, as pursued by Thomas B. Pridmore round 

 Whittlesea, from about 1830 to about 1865, is as follows :— 



In April, May, June, and July, in the morning or evening, in the corn- 

 fields, you spread a net made of thread, with mesh IJinch, ten yards square, 

 on the top of the corn, and on the side that the wind will carry the sound of 

 your pipe to the birds. You then get into the centre of the net, and he 

 dow^n. For this sport you must be provided with two calls— a loud one and 

 a low one. The call for the low note is 8 inches long, and made of a goose's 

 leg-bone 2i inches long, with two holes in it besides those at each end; the 

 rest of the call is made of leather about 2| inches long, with an end of wood. 

 The goose-bone pipe fits into the elastic leather, by compression of which the 

 sound is produced. The call is very much like the noise made by a cricket ; 

 and the Quail's note is stated to be " wet-ma-lip'' 



When the fowler is under his net, he sounds his loud call, with about 

 two seconds between each, and the Quails come flying and settle about ten 

 or fifteen yards ofi^. They cry " wet-ma-Up'' and "how-low^ At this time 

 the low call is sounded, and the birds run so near that they can be caught 

 by the hand. The sportsman then rises suddenly, and the Quails fly up 

 against the net and are captured. 



They were put into a basket, and fed wdth wheat, in boxes made with 

 laths, with straw divisions, to prevent fighting, and sent to London alive by 

 coach, where they fetched a high price. 



This sport is now quite at an end, and the Quails are gone. 



With reference to the above-mentioned cry &c., Lieut.-Col. L. Howard 

 L. Irby says (in ' Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar,' p. 139 J : — 



" In summer Quail are universally distributed all over the cultivated 

 country ; vast numbers are caught in the spring with small nets, by the aid 

 of the ^ Quail-call ' {pitillo}. The birds begin to call their love-note about 



