Nature and Art, December 1, 18GG.] 
ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN FIELD SPORTS. 
237 
pleasant break in the journey. It is no unusual 
circumstance for the keepers of our lighthouses to 
pick up birds of various species dead at the foot of 
the lantern ; — attracted, like moths to a candle, by 
the strong glare of these night-beacons, they dash 
in full flight against the thick glass, and are killed. 
We remember, two years since, the circumstance of 
a woodcock dashing right through the glass of the 
Flamborough lighthouse, which is a quarter of an 
inch in thickness. It was picked up quite dead 
and terribly mutilated, from amidst the lamps. 
Independent of our regular winter visitants, we 
have at this season many casual acquaintances, 
who, from one cause or other, wander to our coasts. 
We have now before us a list of birds shot during 
the present autumn in the neighbourhood of 
Flamborough. Amongst them we find many rarer 
visitors, as — Sabine’s Gull. ( Larus Sabini ), Little 
Gull ( Larus minutus), Manx Shearwater ( Pujfmus 
Anglorum), Greater Shearwater ( Pufjinus major ), 
Pied Flycatcher (. Muscicapa luctuosa), Crossbill 
(Loxia curvirostra ), Little Tern ( Sterna minuta), 
and many others. 
We all can sympathize with our feathered 
visitors in their long night-wanderings over wintry 
seas ; for we also are like birds of passage, ever on 
the wing about life’s stormy sea, journeying towards 
the unknown and distant land ; and, — 
“ He wlio, from zone to zone, 
Guides through the boundless sky their certain flight, 
In the long way that we must tread alone, 
Will lead our steps aright.” 
ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN FIELD SPORTS. 
By the Rev. W. Houghton, M.A., F.L.S. 
III.— WILD-BOAR HUNTING. 
T HE frequent allusions to the chase of the wild 
boar which occur in the writings of Greek 
and Latin authors show with what ardour this sport 
was followed by ancient sportsmen. The danger 
incurred, the courage, patience, and skill necessary 
to ensue success which the chase of the wild boar 
always calls forth, rendered this sport peculiarly 
attractive to the ancient Greek and Roman. The 
description of the Calydonian hunt, so graphically 
given by Ovid, though told in highly poetical lan- 
guage, is scarcely an exaggeration of the hazardous 
nature of this species of chase — “ periculosce 'plenum 
opus alece ” — to borrow a well-known expression of 
the bard of V enusia. 
Before I attempt to give some account of the 
made of hunting the wild boar pursued by the 
ancients, it will be desirable to take a survey of 
the implements employed in the capture of wild 
animals generally. Nets, of course, were very 
necessary. There were three principal kinds in use 
amongst the sportsmen of ancient Greece and 
Rome ; and although it is not easy to learn their 
exact form and mode of use in every particular — 
for the descriptions given by Xenophon and Julius 
Pollux are not always very clear — still it is quite 
possible to get a fair general idea of their structures 
and uses. The nets employed in h unting were 
(1) the ciKTva, (2) the ivofiici, and (3) the apxue q. 
The bcKrva — which corresponded to the Latin retia 
■ — were long, sean-like nets, used for encircling 
covers, or for setting in the open country. Xeno- 
phon recommends all these kinds to be made of 
fine flax from Phasis or Carthage. The size of the 
mesh and strength of the strands in each varied in 
relation to the game which it was required to take. 
So, with respect to their length, they varied from ten 
to thirty fathoms, beyond which, Xenophon says, 
the ctKTva were difficult to manage ; but Plutarch, 
in his “ Life of Alexander,” speaks of hunting-nets 
more than twelve miles long ! A strong rope, 
called it apSojy, passed through the upper portion of 
the dictuon. The net was kept upright by a number 
of forked stakes, called otciXikeq (ancones), of unequal 
sizes, according to the nature of the ground. (2) 
The nets termed i room — answering to the Latin 
plug a — were much smaller than the last named ; 
they were set, as their name implies, in roads, 
paths, narrow openings between bushes, in game- 
tracks, he. They appear to have been pretty much of 
the same form as the dictua. (3) The apicvse were 
very different in shape from the other two, and 
were much the smallest. In form they resembled 
a woman’s head-dress, having a wide mouth, and 
gradually narrowing to a point. They corresponded 
with the cassis of the Romans. A rope ran round 
the mouth of the net through nooses or rings, 
which served to close the entrance when game 
entered it. 
Other instruments necessary for the chase were ja- 
velins (uKovTin)] boar-spears (/Too/3dA.m ) j short swords, 
for defence in case of an attack from wild animals ; 
brush-hooks, for clearing away spaces in thickets 
wherein to set the nets ; traps (iroloarpaftai, or 
troeaypai, described in Part II.) ; running-nooses 
(apTrtSorcu), like the “ gin,” or “ grin,” perhaps, of 
our modern poacher ; bows and arrows, &c. The 
hunter of the hounds (kvi ’ pys-rjc) was the important 
person. He was accompanied by various attendants 
to whom especial duties belonged — such as net- 
carriers, trackers, markers, watchers for the game 
when it got into the net, keepers of the iipKvc, to 
draw the ropes and close the purse-net. The quali- 
fications of a good lmntsman were, that he should 
be young, about twenty years of age, and fond of his 
employment. He was to be of light frame of body, and 
active ; a good runner ; a sharp, clever fellow, fond 
of danger and hard work ; self-confident, vigilant ; 
able to stand any amount of fatigue, never giving 
