40 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



there was a great flight. Their numbers now are 

 so decreased that some shepherds do not set up 

 any coops, as it does not pay for the trouble."^ 



Lower, in his Contributions to Literature, 1854, 

 remarks (p. 153): " The Wheatear is becoming much 

 less numerous than heretofore, to the great loss of 

 the shepherds. The T-shaped incisions or traps in the 

 turf are still seen, however, at the proper season, and 

 many a timid, inoffensive bird still subjects itself to 

 capital punishment in the horse-hair nooseinsidiously 

 concealed therein. 



^ Fleet, Glimpses^ of our Ancestors in Sussex, p. 94. 



