TUNNEL-NET
—is a net for the taking of partridges by night, and principally in use with poachers only for that purpose. This net is never less than fifteen feet in length, and about twenty inches deep; and is made with two wings; so that when they are extended, and fixed to the ground by the stakes prepared for the business, the net forms an angle, with the tunnel or flue in the middle. The covey of birds having been watched at the time of calling together in the evening, and known to be in the field, when the proper hour arrives, (which is seldom before eleven or twelve at night,) the net being previously and properly adjusted, a horse is employed in the process, led in hand by the principal of the firm, who has so nice an ear to the chuckle of the partridges in running, that he is very seldom foiled in his intent of securing the whole in his net; and it is by this wholesale mode of destruction, that even the most plentiful districts are sometimes suddenly cleared.