Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Crow-net

CROW-NET, a contrivance that may be used in the day time, for catching wild fowl in the winter season.

This net is made of double thread, or of fine pack-thread; its meshes should be two inches wide, its length ten yards, and its breadth three; it should also be verged on the side with strong cord, and stretched out very stiffly on long poles prepared for that purpose. When a person arrives at the place where the net is to be laid, he should open and spread it out at its full length and breadth. The lower end should next be fastened along the ground, so that it can only be moved up and down: the upper end must be extended on the long cord, the extremity of it being previously staked to the earth, by another at the distance of about five yards from the net, which must be placed in a straight line with the lower edge of the latter. The other end must be at least 25 yards distant, so as to extend to some natural or artificial shelter, by means of which a person should conceal himself from the fowl; otherwise no success can be expected. The net must, likewise, be placed in such an exact order that it may admit of being played on the birds, by the least agitation of the cord, which must be expeditiously pulled, lest the latter escape. This net may be advantageously employed for taking pigeons, crows, or other fowl, on corn-fields newly sown, as also in stubble-fields, provided the straw be long enough to hide the apparatus from the acute sight of the feathered tribe.