BRITISH BIRDS. 
97 
up their abode in the fens where they were bred, 
each of the males (of which there appears to be a 
tnuch greater number than of females) immediate- 
ly fixes upon a particular dry or grafly fpot in the 
marfli, about which he runs round and round, un- 
til it is trodden bare : to this fpot it appears he 
wifhes to invite the female, and waits in expecta- 
tion of her taking a joint poffeffion, and becoming 
an inmate. As foon as a fingle female arrives, and 
is heard or obferved by the males, her feeble cry 
feems as if it roufed them all to war, for they in- 
ftantly begin to fight, and their combats are de- 
fcribed as being both defperate and of long conti- 
nuance : at the end of the battle flie becomes the 
prize of the viCtor. * It is at the time of thefe battles 
that they are caught in the greatefl: numbers in the 
nets of the fowlers, who watch for that opportuni- 
ty : they are alfo, at other times, caught by clap, 
or day nets, f and are drawn together by means of 
* Buffon fays, “ they not only contend with each other in fin- 
gle rencounter, but they advance to combat in marfiialled ranks.’^ 
f Thefe nets, w^hich are about fourteen yards long, and four 
broad, are fixed by the fowler over night : at day-break in the 
morning he reforts to his Hand, at a few hundred yards diftance 
from the place, and at a fit opportunity pulls his cord, which 
caufes his net to fall over and fecure the prize. Mr Pennant 
fays, an old fowler told him he once caught forty-four birds at 
one haul, and, in all, fix dozen that morning : he alfo adds, 
that a fowler will take forty or fifty dozen in a feafon. The 
females are always fet at liberty. 
Vol.il t N . 
