DECOYING AND TEAPPING ANIMALS. 39 



I know one man wlio adds several pounds to Ms income in the 

 course of a year by taking kingfisliers in this manner. 



Tor tke netting of hawks by a contrivance called the bow 

 net, which was formerly used in England, see Blaine's " Encyclo- 

 paedia of Rural Sports." 



Many birds (notably sea and rock birds) are to be procured by 

 descending the rocks attached to a stout line. But this highly 

 dangerous work had better not be attempted by the tyro. Eor 

 an ancient bat interesting account of rock fowling in the Orkneys, 

 see Pennant's "Arctic Zoology," page 29. The same system is 

 still adopted on many parts of the coast. In fact, I recollect 

 (when some years ago I visited the Isle of Wight on a collecting 

 expedition) seeing two men with ropes and an iron bar going to 

 the top of the " Bench " (a famous place for sea fowl), and while 

 one man was let down over the edge of the cliff his fellow 

 remained at the top to answer the pull of the " bird-line " and 

 look after the safety of the "man-rope" and iron bar. So 

 fascinating did this appear to me that, having been "between 

 heaven and earth" once or twice before, I volunteered to "go 

 below ; " but I found that the fowlers did not care for the risk, 

 or the loss of time, and booty, involved in letting an amateur 

 down. 



It was, indeed, a wonderful sight. I crept as closely as I 

 dared, and lying on my breast looked over the cliff. Hundreds 

 of feet down, the sea, lashed into breakers by the breeze, crept 

 up the steep black rock walls, or tumbled over the half -hidden 

 crags ; and yet, though you could see the white war of waters, 

 but the faintest murmur of this battle between land and sea 

 could be heard — below^ and halfway up, the puiEns and guillemots 

 were sitting in rows, or flying off in droves as little black specks 

 on the white foam. 



Here I learned that they often baited fish-hooks with offal or 

 pieces of fish, for the purpose of catching the gulls, and this 

 brought to my mind the quantities of robins, thrushes, and such 

 birds I had seen caught by fish-hooks baited with worms and 

 pegged down in the olive groves of the Ionian Sea. 



I notice that Pennant mentions that the lapwing is decoyed 

 into nets by the twirling of looking glass. I have seen exactly 

 the same thing myself on the Continent applied to the taking of 



