Book I. 2{3^1T HO LO QY. 



Chap. VL 

 Several ways of taking Theafarits, as 



S. i. 



With Nets. 



PHeafants delight moft in thick, young, well-grown Coppice Woods, unfre- 

 quented and free from the footfteps and tracings of Men and Cattel : not in tall 

 high woods of timber-trees. 

 Having found their haunts and breeding places, you may find their Eye or brood 

 feveral ways: as firft, by the eye, fearching up and down the haunts, and bufhes, &c. 

 Secondly, By coming early in the Morning, or late in the Evening, and obfervingthe 

 old Cock and Hens calling, and the young birds anfwering them, and by that found 



fuiding your (elf, till' you come as near as you can to the place where they meet, lying 

 own there fo clofe that you may not be difcerned, and yet may exa&ly obferve 

 where they lodge, and accordingly where and in what manner to pitch your Nets. 

 Thirdly, Which is the moft fure and eafie way, by an exacl: and natural Pheafant- 

 call: wherewith you mull: learn to imitate all the Pheafants feveral notes and tunes, 

 applying each to the right time and purpofe, when and for which (lie ufes it, whether 

 it be to cluck the young ones together to brood them, to call them to meat whenfhe 

 hath found it, to chide them for ftragling, to call them together to rejoyce and wan- 

 ton about her, for all which fhe hath a feveral note. The moft convenient hours for 

 theufe of the Call are before or about Sun-rifing, andfbmewhat before Sun-fet, at 

 which times they ftraggle abroad to feek their food, and then your note is to call 

 them to their food, or give them liberty to range. But if you will call them after 

 Sun-rife or before Sun-fet, your notes muft be to cluck them together to brood, 

 as alfb to chide them for ftragling, and put them in fear of danger. The notes of 

 rejoycing or playing are rather for finding the old Couples when they are 

 feparated. 



Being come to the haunts you (hall lodge your felf in the moft likely place for your 

 purpofe, as clofe as poffible, and then begin to call, firft in a very low note, ( left the 

 Pheafants be lodged near you, and then a fudden loud note may affright them) but if 

 nothing reply, raife your note by degrees to the higheft pitch, yet by no means o ver- 

 ftraining it, or making it (peak untunably , and if there be a Pheafant in the Wood 

 within hearing of it fhe will prefently anfwer, and that in your own note and key. 

 If this call back be but from one fingle bird, and come from far, then you ihall as fe- 

 cretly as you can creep nearer to it, ftill plying your call $ and you (hall find that the 

 Pheafant that anfwereth will alio come nearer to you.' The nearer you come, the 

 lower obferve to make your Call fpeak, as the Pheafant her felf will do, and her in 

 all points you muft imitate as near as you can } and in the end you will get a fight of 

 her, either on the ground, or on the boughs of fome low tree, as it were prying to 

 find you: Then ceafing your Call a while, fpread your Net as fecretly and fpeedily 

 as may be, in the convenienteft place between you and the Pheafant, upon the loweft 

 fhrubs and bufhes, making one end fall: to the ground, and holding the other end by 

 a long Line in your hand, by which when any thing ftraineth it you may draw the Net 

 clofe together, or at leaft into a hollow compafs. Which done, you ihail call again 3 

 and then as foon as you Ihall perceive the Pheafant to come juft under your Net, you 

 fhall rife and fhew your felf, that by giving him an affright, he may offer to mount,- 

 and fo be entangled in your Net. 



If many anfwer your Call from feveral quarters of the Wood, ftir riot at all, but 

 ply your Call, and as they come nearer to you, fpread your Nets in the moft conve- 

 nient places round about you , and When they are come under the Nets,boldly difeo- 

 ver your felf, to give the affright, and make them mount. 



f.n. 



