Two methods were in use in those days for catching the woodcook and pheasant, which deserve to be mentioned.  “The pheasants,” says “King Modus,” “are of such a nature that the male bird cannot bear the company of another.”  Taking advantage of this weakness, the plan of placing a mirror, which balanced a sort of wicker cage or coop, was adopted.  The pheasant, thinking he saw his fellow, attacked him, struck against the glass and brought down the coop, in which he had leisure to reflect on his jealousy (Fig. 163).

Woodcocks, which are, says the author, “the most silly birds,” were caught in this way.  The bird-fowler was covered from head to foot with clothes of the colour of dead leaves, only having two little holes for his eyes.  When he saw one he knelt down noiselessly, and supported his arms on two sticks, so as to keep perfectly still.  When the bird was not looking towards him he cautiously approached it on his knees, holding in his hands two little dry sticks covered with red cloth, which he gently waved so as to divert the bird’s attention from himself.  In this way he gradually got near enough to pass a noose, which he kept ready at the end of a stick, round the bird’s neck (Fig. 164).

However ingenious these tricks may appear, they are eclipsed by one we find recorded in the “Ixeuticon,” a very elegant Latin poem, by Angelis de Barga, written two centuries later.  In order to catch a large number of starlings, this author assures us, it is only necessary to have two or three in a cage, and, when a flight of these birds is seen passing, to liberate them with a very long twine attached to their claws.  The twine must be covered with bird-lime, and, as the released birds instantly join their friends, all those they come near get glued to the twine and fall together to the ground.

[Illustration:  Fig. 162.—­Bird-catching with a Machine like a Long Arm.—­Fac-simile of Miniature in the Manuscript of the “Livre du Roy Modus” (Fourteenth Century).]

As at the present time, the object of bird-fowling was twofold, namely, to procure game for food and to capture birds to be kept either for their voice or for fancy as pets.  The trade in the latter was so important, at least in Paris, that the bird-catchers formed a numerous corporation having its statutes and privileges.

The Pont au Change (then covered on each side with houses and shops occupied by goldsmiths and money-changers) was the place where these people carried on their trade; and they had the privilege of hanging their cages against the houses, even without the sanction of the proprietors.  This curious right was granted to them by Charles VI. in 1402, in return for which they were bound to “provide four hundred birds” whenever a king was crowned, “and an equal number when the queen made her first entry into her good town of Paris.”  The goldsmiths and money-changers, however, finding that this became a nuisance, and that it injured their trade, tried to get it abolished.