Small nets of a few yards long, made of fine black silk, with a small
mesh, are used in some parts of the country for taking kingfishers.
These nets are stretched across a small watercourse or the arch of a
bridge in such a manner that, a little "slack" being allowed, the bird
is taken to a certainty in attempting to pass. So fatal is this net
when skilfully set, that I know one man who adds several pounds to his
income in the course of a year by taking kingfishers in this manner.

For the netting of hawks by a contrivance called the bow net, which
was formerly used in England, see Blaine's "Encyclopaedia 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. For an ancient
but 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
puffins 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 Se