nding a hair noose between
two turves placed on end and touching each other in the form of the
roof of a house; to this shelter the birds constantly run on the
approach of danger, or even, apparently, through timidity, on the
gathering of storm clouds.
With this springe, also, thrushes and similar birds are described as
being snared by Mr. Gould (in his "Birds of Great Britain"), who,
giving Mr. Box as his authority, says:
The thrush is a great source of amusement to the middle, and of
profit to the lower, classes during its autumnal migration. Many
families of Liege, Luxemburg, Luneburg, Namur, parts of Hainault, and
Brabant choose this season for their period of relaxation from
business, and devote themselves to the taking of this bird with
horsehair springes. The shopkeeper of Liege and Verviers, whose house
in the town is the model of comfort and cleanliness, resorts with his
wife and children to one or two rooms in a miserable country village
to enjoy the sport he has been preparing with their help during the
long evenings of the preceding winter, in the course of which he has
made as many as from 5000 to 10,000 horsehair springes and prepared as
many pieces of flexible wood, rather thicker than a swan-quill, in and
on which to hang the birds. He hires what he calls his 'tenderie,'
being from four to five acres of underwood about three to five years
old, pays some thirty shillings for permission to place his springes,
and his greatest ambition is to retain for several years the same
tenderie and the same lodgings, which he improves in comfort from year
to year.
The springes being made and the season of migration near, he goes for
a day to his intended place of sojourn, and cuts as many twigs, about
18 in. in length, as he intends hanging springes. There are two
methods of hanging them--in one the twig is bent into the form of the
figure six, the tail end running through a slit out in the upper part
of the twig. The other method is to sharpen a twig at both ends, and
insert the points into a grower or stem of underwood, thus forming a
bow, of which the stem forms the string below the springe; and hanging
from the lower part of the bow is placed a small branch, with three or
four berries of the mountain ash (there called "sorbier "); this is
fixed to the bow by inserting the stalk into a slit in the wood. The
hirer of a new tenderie three or four acres in extent is obliged to
make zigzag footpaths through it,
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