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The inscription on this 18th-century etching by Johann Elias Ridinger is from a time before official spelling rules existed. German printmakers (like most of their contemporaries) applied a phonetic writing style, i.e. they spelled words the way they sounded to them. A translation of an inscription like this one requires knowledge in art history, in addition to understanding of old German language.
Joh.[ann] El.[ias] Ridinger inv.[enit] del.[ineavit] sculps.[it] et execud.[it] Aug.[ustae] Vind.[elicorum]*
Crow, Magpie, and Raven Blind
It is best to be built in a field on a hill over which these birds like to flock from the village to the fields. It can be made of wooden boards or vaulted in stone. It is important that the hut be lowered into the ground and not rise too far. There should be embrasures, some of them on ground level. A hole is to be made in the middle of the hut, through which a pole can be moved up and down. A disk is to be attached to this pole with a rabbit skin on it and a large shoe tied to it. 20 paces or more from the hut you put trees with only a few dry branches on them. Some bait is to be put on the ground every once in a while. When the people are in the hut, the shoe that is tied to the pole is to be moved up and down so that it is flapping. As soon as the crows, magpies, and ravens see this, they are often lured hither to attack it. They then shriek and sit down on the trees or go for the bait on the ground. They can then be shot from the blind to the huntersŐ pleasure. An entire territory of feathered birds will be freed from these predatory birds, or at least significantly reduced in number.
*Johann Elias Ridinger (Ulm 1698 - 1767 Augsburg). The Latin inscription says he conceived (invenit), drew (delineavit), engraved (sculpsit), and published (execudit) this print in Augsburg (Augustae Vindelicorum). Ridinger was a painter, printmaker, and publisher who made over a thousand prints, mostly with animal subjects. He was also director of the Augsburg Academy. Augsburg was one of the major European publishing centers at that time.