The gentlemans recreation in two parts : the first being an encyclopedy of the arts and sciences ... the second part treats of horsmanship, hawking, hunting, fowling, fishing, and agriculture : with a short treatise of cock-fighting ... : all which are collected from the most authentick authors, and the many gross errors therein corrected, with great enlargements ... : and for the better explanation thereof, great variety of useful sculptures, as nets, traps, engines, &c. are added for the taking of beasts, fowl and fish : not hitherto published by any : the whole illustrated with about an hundred ornamental and useful sculptures engraven in copper, relating to the several subjects.

CHAP. X. [ 10]

How to take Quails, More-Powts Rails, &c. with Calls; with di∣rections to made the said Calls; as also with Nets. [ 20]

THe best way to take these Birds as well as those aforesaid, is to know their Haunts, and to learn their perfect Notes on the Call.

The Quail delights in Corn-Fields and Mowing-Grass. The More-Powt in Heaths and Forests, and the Rails in long Standing-Grass, where they may lye obscure.

Quails are to be taken by Calls, whilst they are in their Wooing, which is from April to August. [ 30] The Quail will Call at Sunrising, about Nine a Clock, about Twelve, about Three in the Afternoon and at Sun-set. The Notes of the Cock differ much from the Hen, so that you must be expert in both if you intend to do any good in taking them; and when you hear the Cock Call, Answer in the Hens Note, and so contrary-wise Answer the Hen in the Cocks, and thus you will have both come to you, so that you may cast over your Net and take them.

If it be a single Cock-Quail he will come at the [ 40] first Call; but if he have a Hen with him, he will not forsake her. Sometimes you shall hear only one to answer your Call, yet Three or Four will come to the Net, so that you need not make too great hast when you find one entangled, for in a short time some more may be taken.

Quails are a neat cleanly Bird, and will not much run in Dews or Wet Places, but choose ra∣ther to fly, that they may not dirty themselves; you must therefore at such times place your self [ 50] as near your Net as possible.

If by Accident the Quail passeth by one end of the Net, lye close for some time and let her go a little way, then gently remove your self on the o∣ther side of the Net, and Call her back again, and she will soon come to your Net.

The Form of the Calls, and how to make them are as follows.

[illustration]

THe first is made of a Leather-Purse, about two Fingers wide, and four long, in fa∣shion like a Pear; It must be stuft half full of Horse-hair in the end marked with the Figure 5, fasten a small Device marked C, made of a Bone of a Cats, Hares or Coneys Legs, or of the Wing of a Hen, which must be about 3 Fingers long, and the end C must be formed like a Flagelet, with a little soft Wax; also put in a little to close up the Hole A, which open a little with a Pin, to cause it to give the clearer and shriller Sound. This Pipe fasten in your Purse, and then to make it speak hold it full in the Palm of your Hand, and place one of your Fingers over the place, marked 5; you must strike on the place D with the hinder part of your left Thumb, and so to counterfeit the Call of the Hen Quail.

The other Quail Call must be 4 Fingers long, made of a piece of Wyer, turned round in such form as the Figure describes. It must be cover∣ed over with Leather, and one end thereof closed up with a piece of flat Wood marked 2; about the middle you must have a small Thread, or Leather-Strap wherewith you may hold it, so as to use it with one Hand, and at the other end place just such a Pipe, as was described before in the making up the first Call.

Now for the Calling with it, hold the Strap, or piece of Leather, with your left Hand close by the piece of Wood No. 2. and with your right Hand hold the Pipe just where it is joyned to the Flagelet No. 3.

The Net to be used should be made of [ 60] Silk, or very fine Thread, about Twelve yards square, with a Hole in the midst, large enough to sit in, so that when the Quail comes within the Compass of the Net, your rising up will cause her to fly, and so she will be taken: The places to pitch these Nets must be in Corn-Fields, as Barley, Oates, or the like.

Another way to take Quails.

THere is another way to take Quails with the same Calls, but with a different Net, made also four Square, about Twenty or Two and Twenty Foot every way, and of Green Silk or Thread, with a couple of strong Straps at any two of the Corners. There must be two in com∣pany to use it, and each must hold one of the [ 10] said Straps, when they use the Net, and so to draw it over the Quails, the bottom hanging a liltle on the Ground. The manner is that when you hear any Quail Call, listen exactly where∣abouts it is, and go softly thither; if it Call no more, give it a light touch with your Pipe, to make it speak. This way is most fit to be used in Standing-Grass, or in Stubble-Fields.

You must have a nimble Ear to discern the place, and so go thither with your Net drawn, [ 20] and when you are just at it, let fall, and beat with your Hat, or the like, to cause it to rise, and by this means you may take many in a day.

If you are alone then pitch your Net in such manner as the Fore-part may rest clear from the Ground about Eight or Nine Inches by the help of the Benty-Grass, or some small Sticks; then give a Call, and they will come under the Net. [ 30]