HUNTING AND FISHING. 161 
bird, it rises and alights upon a tree, and the dog runs round and round, 
uae at it, unti] the sportsman makes his appearance and shoots a 
game ( jig. 55). Pheasants may be hunted without dogs on a bright starry 
night, or when the moon shines faintly. These birds are taken also in 
thorn nets or tunnel nets, and finally, with the pheasant trap (jig. 44), 
which consists of a large hoe resembling a house, on the outside of which 
one or several silk nets, or linen =i fall soa when the trigger or 
holding-piece of the apparatus is pulled a the attempt of the pheasant to 
take the bait. 
9. Witp Guesr anp Ducks are caught in nets of different kinds, on land 
or water, or (especially the ducks) with fishing tackle. They are also pro- 
cured by shooting. For this purpose a cabin of leaves is constructed upon 
the shore, towards which the ducks are attracted by means of the bird-call, or 
they are killed from a boat (fig. 56). In boat-shooting the gun is rested 
upon a support (fig. 51), and the skiff rowed cautiously from place to place. 
Ducks, however, being difficult to approach, it is better to make use of 
decoys, or even the shooting-horse, behind which the sportsman hides him- 
self until the birds come within distance. 
10. Parrrmers were formerly taken in nets made of thorn bushes, but 
having now become scarce (in Germany) are reserved for shooting, or 
caught in the partridge-trap (jig. 48), constructed upon the same principles 
as the pheasant-trap described above. 
11. Fre~praRrEs AND OTHER SMALL Birps. In taking fieldfares and other 
small birds the apparatus most in use is the gin (fig. 30) or horse-hair loops, 
tripled or quadrupled according to the necessity of the case. The bait con- 
sists of berries. “2g. 30 represents the bow-gin. Snares somewhat similar 
to those used by boys in America for rabbits are also in use for catching 
snipes. gs. 31 and 32 represent spring-snares in which birds are 
strangled. Another mode of taking birds is by means of the trap exhi- 
bited in jig. 45. A very useful contrivance for catching singing birds in 
numbers is the fowling-floor (fig. 46). This is a mound, a, of 18 or 20 feet 
in length by 12 feet wide, and 3 feet in height, covered with sods on which 
little twigs with berries and trained decoy birds are placed. Other decoy 
birds are hung in cages in neighboring trees, ps. Around the mound is 
fixed in the ground a large net with small meshes, which is carefully folded 
down on the ground. Its upper edges are fastened to a double frame, gg, 
capable of being closed round the hinges, 7/7, and whose extremities are 
held firmly to the ground between stretched ropes passing crosswise from 
the spring-poles, ee, through rings at the end of the frame, to the pegs, dd, 
driven into the ground. Two lines, Ai, are passed under the frame and 
over the blocks, ec, and are united into one line, 6, which is governed from 
the hut, c, where the fowler is stationed, and which has only small loop- 
holes on the side towards the mound, the door being on the opposite side. 
A pull at this line will lift the two Sree of the frame’a little from the 
ground, when the spring-power of the poles, ee, will immediately act, and 
rapidly draw the two halves of the frame into a vertical position over the 
fowling-floor, causing the net to be lifted and closed over the mound. This 
741 
