ON BIRD-NETS. 

 Fig. 3. 



365 



"TUIfNELIillTG FOB QUAIL S." 



1678. 



Mr. Stevenson, in ' Birds of Norfolk ' Cvol. ii. pp. 376, 377), thus 

 describes the capture of sea-fowl : — 



"On the flat shores of the Wash, at the mouth of the estuary, long 

 nets, some six or seven feet deep, are stretched upright on poles, somewhere 

 about high-water mark ; and the birds, in their nocturnal flight, strike the 

 nets, and, becoming entangled in the meshes, are taken alive in the morning. 

 Some, however, are occasionally drowned, should the tide rise higher than is 

 expected or the nets be placed beyond a certain level on the ooze. 



'^The meshes are large; so that various Gulls and wildfowl are caught 

 by them. But the smaller Tringce, and even Larks, are taken in some 

 quantities, being entangled by their struggles. I have heard of as many as 

 sixty Dunlins having been secured at one haul — and on one occasion as 

 many as one hundred and forty head, principally Sea-GuUs." 



Mr. Stevenson, in a note, gives the following list of captured species : — 

 '' Owls, Larks, Golden and Grey Plovers, Curlews, Redshanks, Bar-tailed 



