BIRD CATCHING. 



359 



on either hand. Tlie meshes of tlie 

 inner nets are mucli snialler 

 than tliose of tlie outer ones: 

 and in the middle of this trap, 

 concealed in a hut, sits tlie 

 Lord of Creation, man, 

 lilce a spider on tlie 

 watch lor liispre\ . 

 When a Hock of 

 wear\' and liungr\- birds- 

 of-passaq'e ha\'e settled 

 down in the attrac- 

 tr\'e garden, the fowl- 

 er startles them with 

 oud shouts and flings out from the hut 

 a nois\' instrument called a "Diavolo". 

 j The terrified birds fl\- up obliquel\- and 

 thus strike the inner net with narrower 

 meshes; these are dri\-en b\' the pressure through the 

 A\-ider meshes of the outer net. In tliis wa^- each 

 bird is caught in a sort of bag, and the proprietor of 

 the -'Roccolo" AA-alks at his leisure from one prisoner to 

 the next, twisting their necks. Professor Penzig has been 

 able to examine the daih" register of one of these bird- 

 catchers; the number of birds caught b\ this one man 

 averaged 3,427 per ^-ear for the ten \-ears 1(S')2 to I'iOl. 

 We can from this realise how millions upon millions 

 ot migrator)- birds are thus destro\'ed. The^- fetch 

 four centimes each, and find their wax to the Italian 



markets. Is it not distressing to think that we care 



