BIRD

Edwabd, R.A., an English painter, b(im ink. useful at Wolver hampton, 1772, died at Bristol, 1S19. He of excelled in comic subjects. The Marquis of Stafford nets patronized him. He was appointed historical painter Volga to the Prince Charlotte of Wales. North BIRD, John, a celebrated mathematical instrument maker, bom in 1709, died in 1776. Among it tohis instruments are the celebrated Green wich quattrant, which was used by Bradley and Maskelyne, and the mural quadrant of the £oole Militaire at with Paris, employed by D'Agelet and Lalaade in deter many mining the declinations of 50,000 stars. Hia niy^ the riority to all other makers of his day is strikiii^lv of established by the fact that in 1767 the Board Jf ropes, Longitude paid him £500 on his agreeing to take an even apprentice, instruct other persons as required, and fasten furnish upon oath descriptions and plates of his rain. methods. ^Williav, one of the most eminent comare posers of sacred music, was bom about 1540, becam* During a pupil of Thomas Tallis, and jointly with his masu-r been was appointed organist to Queen Elizabeth. He dicvl as food in 1623. That ho was one of the greatest maat efore Uiem; but the lantern or box must not be so lai^ as that which is fixed to the breast. Birds are als a taken by night in open countries, with a long trammel-net, much like the net used for the low bdl, both in shape, size, and mesh. This net is to be spread upon ite ground; the lower end being plumbed should lie dose, while the upper end being kept suspended at the two comers, it is trailed along the road at about a yard in height. Then »t each end of the net must be cturied several blazing lights of fire, such as have been described before; "by which the attendants, with long poles, must raise xip the birds as they proceed, and as they ascend under the nets take them. Birds, and especially of the smaller kinds, are also ^Aken by bird-Ume. In using bird-lime take your jrods, and warm them gently over the fire; next take 5G3 your lime and wind it about the top of your rods, then draw your rods asunder from one another, and close them again, continually plying and working them together, till by smearing one upon another, you have equally bestowed on each rod a sufficient quantity of lime. If you lime any strings, do it when the lime is very hot and thin, besmearing the strings on all sides by folding them together and unfolding them again. Straws must likewise be limed when the lime is very hot, taking as many as you can well grasp in your hand, and to ing and working them before the fire till they are all besmeared, every straw having its due proportion of lime; having so done, put them up in cases of leather for use. With the twigs thus limed you may catch snipes and fieldfares but; the smaller birds which frequent hedges and ditches may be taken with much greater ease. For this last purpose cut down the main branch or bough of any bushy tree, whose branches and twigs are long, thick, smooth, and straight, without either pricks or knots, of wluch the wHlow or birch tree are the best; when you have picked it and trimmed it from all superfluities, and made the twigs neat and clean, take the best bird-lime, well mixed and wrought together with goose or capon's grease, and having warmed it, lime every twig therewith within four fiingers of the bottom. The body whence the branches have their rise must be untouched with lime. Some delicacy is nece ary in smearing the twigs; for if daubed too much, it will give distaste to the birds. Yet let none want its proportion, or have any part left bare which ought to be touched: for as too much will deter them from coming, so too litUe will not hold them when they are come. Having so done, place your bush in some quickset or dead hedge near the town's-end, back-yards, old houses, or the like; for these are the resort of small birds in the spring-time: in the summer and harvest, in groves, bushes, or white-thorn trees, quickset hedges near corn-fields, fruit-trees, flax and hemp lands: and in the winter about houses, hovels, bams, stacks, or those places where ricks of com, or scattered chaff, ., attract them. As near as you can to any of those haunts plant your lime-budi, and place yourself also at a convenient distance undiscovered, imitating with your mouth several notes of birds, which you must learn by frequent practice, walking the fields for that purpose very often, observing the variety of different birds' sounds, especially those they call one another by. Some have been so expert therein, that they could imitate the notes of twenty sorts of birds at least, by which they have caught ten birds to another's one who was ignorant in this art. If you cannot attain it by your industry, you must buy a bird-call, of which there are several sorts, and easy to be made of wood, horn, or cane. Having learned first how to use this call, you should sit and call the birds to you, and when any of them light on your bush, do not step out to them tiU you see them sufficiently entangled; neither is it requisite to run for every single bird, but let them alone till more come, for the fluttering is as good as a decoy to entice them. This exercise you may use from sun-rising till ten o'clock in the morning, and from one till almost sunset. You may also take small birds with lime-twngs only, and without the bush. There is another way of taking birds with lime twigs, by placing near them a decoy or two made of living bats, placing them aloft that they may be visible to the birds thereabouts, which will no sooner perceive them than every bird will come and gaze, wondering at the strangene of the sight, and having no other convenient lighting-place than where the lime-twigs are, you may take what number you like of them. Yet the o^l is a far better decoy than bat, being bigger and more easily to be perceived; besides he is never seen abroad, without being lowed and persecuted by all tiie birds that are If you have not a live bat or owl, their skins serve as well, stuffed, and will last you twenty there are some have used an owl cut in wood, naturally painted, with great succe . Another method of bird-catching is that by of nets and call-birds, which is practised chiefly March and October, when the birds migrate The nets employed are a most ingenious piece mechanism; generally 12^ yards long, and 2^ wide; and no one, on bare inspection, would imagine thnt a bird could be caught by the nets flapping each other, till he becomes an eye-witne puller s succe . The bird-catcher, who has a proper apparatus this purpose, generally carries with him five linnets (of which more are caught than any kind of singing bird), two goldfinches, two finches, one woodlark, one red-poll, a yellow-hammer, titlark, and aberdevine, and perhaps a bullfinch; these are placed at small distances from the little cages. He has, besides, what are called birds, which are placed within the nets, are upon the flur or movable perch, and gently let at the time the wild bird approaches them. generally consist of the linnet, the goldfinch, and greenfinch, which are secured to the flur by what called a brace or movable bandage, a contrivance that secures the birds without doing any injury their plumage. When the bird-catcher has laid his nets, poses of his call-birds at proper intervals. It be owned, their sight and hearing infinitely those of the bird-catcher. The instant that birds are perceived, notice is given by One rest of the call-birds, as it is by the first hound hits on the scent to the rest of the pack; after follows the same sort of tumultuous ecstasy and The call-birds, while the bird is at a distance, sing as a bird does in a chamber; they inWte the ones by what the bird-catchers call short jerks, when the birds are good, may be heard at a distance. The ascendency by this call or invitation is BO great, that the wild bird is stopped in its of flight; and, if not already acquainted with nets, lights boldly within 20 yards of perhaps or four bird-catchers, on a spot which otherwise it would not have taken the least notice of. Nay, frequently happens, that if half a flock only caught, the remaining half will inmiediately wards light in the nets, and share the same fate; should only one bird escape, that bird will suffer to be pulled at till it is caught; so fascinating a have the call-birds. The nightingale is not a bird of flight, in the the bird-catchers use this term. Like the wren, and many other singing birds, it only from hedge to hedge, and does not take the periodical flights in October and March. The persons catch these birds make use of small trap-nets, out call-birds; and are considered as inferior nity to other bird-catchers, who will not rank them. The arrival of the nightingale is expected the trappers in the neighbourhood of London the week in April: at the beginning, none but cocks taken; but in a few days the hens make their pearance, generally by themselves, though sometimes a few males come along with them. The latter distinguished from the females not only by superior size, but by a great swelling of their which commences on the first arrival of the They are caught iz^ a net-trap, the bottom of the is surrounded with an iron ring; the net itself is rather larger than a cabbage-net. When the trapper a folhear or see them, they strew some fresh mould under near. the place, and bait the trap wiih. a meal-worm from will the baker's shop. Ten or a dozen nightingales have years; been thus caught in the course of a day. and The common way of taking larks, of which so many are used at our tables, is in the night, with those nets which are called trammels. These are means in usually made of 36 yards in length, and about 6 yards or fiy. over, with six ribs of packthread, which at the ends of are put upon poles of about 16 feet long, and made le at each end. These are to be drawn over the yards ground by two men, and every five or six steps the over net is made to touch the ground, otherwise it will pa over the birds without touching them, and they of the will escape. When they are felt to fly up against for the net, it is clapped do\^ and then all are safe that or six are under it. The darkest nights are most proper for other this sport; and the net will not only take larks, but all o^er birds that roost on the ground; among green which are woodcocks, snipes, partridges, quail a, fieldfares, and several others. In the depth of winter, nets in people sometimes take great numbers of larks by flurnooses of horse-hair, the method being as follows: take raised 100 or 200 yards of packthread; fasten at every sixth down inch a noose made of double horse-hair; at every 20 These yards the line is to be pegged down to the ground, the and so left ready to take them. The time t j use this is is when the ground is covered with snow, and the larks are to be allured to it by some white oats to scattered all the way among the nooses. They must be taken away as soon as three or four are hung, he dis otherwise the rest will be frightened; but though the others are scared away, just where the sportsman cornea, must excel they will be feeding at the other end of the line, and wild the sport may be thus continued for a long time. — to the Those caught in the day are taken in dap-nets of 15 that yards long, and 2^ in breadth; and are enticed within which their reach by means of bits of looking-gla fixed joy. in a piece of wood, and placed in the middle of the do not nets, which are put in a quick whirling motion, by wild a string the larker commands; he also makes use ol which, a decoy lark. These nets are used only till the 14th November: for the larks will not dare to frolic in great the air, except in fine sunny weather; and of ooume course cxmnot be inveigled into the snare. Wlien the the weather grows gloomy, the larker changes his engine, three and makes use of a trammel net, 27 or 28 feet lon^. and 5 broad; which is put on two poles 18 feet luc^, it and carried by men under each arm, who pa o\vx are the fields, and quarter the ground as a setting do/ after when they hear or feel a lark hit the net, they djxi}i and it down, and by those means the birds are secured. itself None of these methods is attended ynXh. any dangvr: power but fowling as practised among the rocks and ptwipices of Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes, and otiM^r sense northern islands and coasts, is a most hazardoas occurobin, pation. In the Orkneys and Shetland the pvecipict^ moves are sometimes several hundred feet in height, th«-ir faces roughened with shelves or ledges sufficaeiit who only for the birds to rest and lay their egg« \m their cut by the sharpne of the rocks; the first k a]it ti* vent, untwist. They trust themselves to a single awiAhens. ant, who lets his companion down, and hc^da the rojH!, dc|)ending on his strength alone; which ufu.n which fails^ and the adventurer is sure to be dashed to pieces, or drowned in the subjacent sea. The rope 15 often shifted from place to phice, with the impending weight of the fowler and Ids booty. The person above receives signals for the purpose, his a ociate being far out of sight. Here we should not omit to mention the way in which the birds are taken from the Holm of Noes, a vast rock severed from the Isle of No by some unknown convulsion, and only about 16 fathoms distant. It is of the same stupendous height as the opposite precipice, with a raging sea between; so that the intervening chasm is of matchle horror. Some adventurous climber has reached the rock in a boat, gained the height, and fastened several stakes on the small portion of earth which is to be found on the top; corresponding stakes are placed on the edge of the opposite cliffs. A rope is fixed on the stakes on both sides, along which a machine called a cradle is contrived to slide; and, by the help of a small parallel oord, fastened in like manner, the adventurer wafts himself over, and returns with his booty. The manner by which bird-catching in the Faroe Islands is performed is similar, but even more hazardous. The cliffs there are often 200 fathoms in height, and are attempted from above and below. In the first case, the fowlers provide themselves with a rope from 80 to 100 fathoms in length. The fowler fastens one end about his waist and between his legs, recommends himself to the protection of the Almighty, and is lowered down by six others, who place a piece of timber on the margin of the rock, to preserve the rope from wearing against the sharp edge. They have besides a small line fastened to the body of the adventurer, by which he gives signals that they may lower or raise him, or shift him from place to place. The last operation is attended with great danger, by the loosening of the stones, which often fall on his head, and would ^ infallibly destroy him, were it not protected by a strong thick cap; but even that is found unequal to save him against the weight of the larger fragments of rock. The dexterity of these men is A.¥nn.ging; they will placo their feet against the front of the precipice, and dart themselves some fathoms from it, with a cool eye survey the places where the birds nestle, and again shoot into their haunts. In some places the birds lodge in deep rece es. The fowler will alight there, disengage himself from the rope, fix it to a stone, and at his leisure collect the booty, fasten it to his girdle, and resume his pendulous seat. At times he will again spring from the rock, and, in that attitude, with a fowling-net placed at the end of a staff, catch the old birds which are flying to and from their retreats. When be has finished his dreadful task, he gives a signal to his friends above, who pull him up, and sbve the hard-earned profit. The feathers are preserved for exportation: the flesh is partly eaten fresh, but the greater portion is dried for provision during the winter. The method of fowling from below has also its share of danger. The party go on the expedition in a boat; and when they have attained the base of the precipice, one of the most daring, having fastened a rope about his waist, and furnished himself with a long pole, with an iron hook at one end, either climbs or is thrust up by his companions, to the next footing Fpot he can reach. He, by means of the rope, brings -up one of the boat's crew; the rest are drawn up in the same manner, and each is furnished with his rope and fowling-staff. They then continue their progre upwards in the same manner, till they arrive at the r-3gion of birds; and wander about the face of the cliff in search o^ them. They then act in pairs; one fastens himself to the end of his a ociate's rope, and, in places where birds have nestled beneath his footing, he [>ermits himself to be lowered down, depending for his security on the strength of his companion, who has to haul him up again; but it sometimes happens that the person above is overpowered by the weight, and both inevitably perish. They fling the fowl into the boat which attends their motions and receives the booty. They often pa seven or eight days in this tremendous employment, and lodge in the cavities which they find in the face of the precipice. In some remote parts of Ru ia there is practised a singiUar invention for taking great quantities of gelinottes or grouse. They choose the most open places in the birch woods; and there they plant long forks in the earth opposite the larger trees. On these forks is laid a horizonal stick, ^lows-wise, to which are tied small bundles of ears of com. At a small distance from this part of the contrivance is a kind of large funnel, or inverted cone, made with long birch twigs, thin and flexible, the lower extremities of which are stuck in the earth, very near to one another; but by spreading towards the top, form there an opening of above a yard in diameter. In this opening is placed a wheel, made of two circles that intersect each other, and are surrounded with straw and ears of com. This wheel turns on an axis fastened to the sides of the funnel, in such a manner, that there is room enough between the sticks of the cone and circles to admit of the wheel's turning freely about. The birds first perch upon the transverse stick near the tree; and when they have a mind to fall upon the com tied to the wheel, they must nece arily stand upon one of the projecting parts of the circles of which it is composed. At that instant the wheel turns, and the gelinotte falls, head foremost, to the bottom of the trap, which is there so contracted that he cannot get out. They sometimes find the machine half full of gelinottes. The following method of netting or catching wild pigeons is eagerly pursued as a diversion in different parts of Italy, particularly by the inhabitants of Cava in the Hither Principato, and is thus described by Mr. Swinburne. The people 'a emble in parties; and if any stranger chance to stray to their rendezvous, give him a most cordial welcome. I am not in the least surprised,' says Mr. Swinburne, 'at their pa ionate fondne for this sport, as I found it extremely bewitching, keeping the attention constantly alive, and the springs of the mind pleasingly agitated by expectation; the situations where the toils are spread are incomparably beautiful, the air is pure and balsamic, and everything around breathes health and satisfaction. When the periodical flights of Rtockdoves return from the northern and western parts of Europe to gain warmer regions for their winter abode, the fowler repairs to the mountain, and spreads his nets acro the intermediate hollows, the pa es through which the birds direct their course, to avoid unnece ary elevation in their flight. These nets are hung upon a row of large trees planted for the purpose. The branches being very thick and cloi$u at top, and the trunk lofty and bare, a great opening is left below for the toils, which reach to the ground; and, by means of pulleys, fail in a heap with the least effort. Sometimes they are extended upon poles that exceed the height of the trees. At a small distance is a lofty circular turret, like a column with a little capital or cap, upon which a man is stationed to watch the approach of the game. As he commands a free view over all the country, and practice has made his sight as acute as that of the lynx, he descries the birds at a w^onderful distance. The doves advance with great velocity; but tlie alert w^atchman is prepared for them; and juAt as they approach his post, hurls a stone above them with a sling: this, the whole flock, whose fears have birds of for their great object, supposing the stone to enemy of that kind ready to pounce upon them, dovm like lightning to shun the blow by pa ing the trees; but there they rush into the jaws of by dashing against the net, which instantly drops, so entangles them that not one of them can the active hands of the fowler. These birds sometimes taken by dozens at one fall, and are counted fine eatinir. The dex^rity wiUi which slinger. n>anage tSeir weapon » viry remarkable they throw the stone to a great height, without violent effort, and without whirling the sling before they discharge the pellet. In the Pyrene an mountains, where the same diversion is followed, watchman uses a bow and arrow, trimmed with feathers of a hawk.' For the capture of water-fowl, see Decoy. 211