DECEIVING WILD CREATURES. 13 



I reasoned with myself that if a stuffed bullock 

 could be made so useful in meadows and pastures, 

 a sheep treated in a similar manner ought to 

 prove equally efficacious amongst birds living on 

 moors and mountains, so requested my friend 

 Mr. Charles Thorpe, of Croydon, to buy and 

 prepare me the skin of one as a sort of extinguisher 

 for the camera. 



As the taxidermist's men said when they put 

 the stuffed sheep, neatly swathed in canvas, into 

 the van of the train by which I was travelling 

 through Croydon on my way to the North of 

 England, it had been " set up lying down," and 

 a hole left in the chest for the lens of the camera 

 to peep through. 



Upon reaching Charing Cross and walking 

 down the platform to look after the transference 

 of my luggage to a cab, I found a small crowd 

 gathered round something opposite the open door 

 of the van, and discovered that my item of the 

 fold was providing the sensation. Some seeker 

 after knowledge had, in his eagerness to learn 

 what the strange-shaped package contained, un- 

 fastened the canvas round the sheep's head, and 

 it was gazing straight in front of it in that mild, 

 dignified, "I - know - a - green - pasture - far-away " 

 fashion of its kind. Several onlookers wished to 

 know if it were an " old favourite," whilst others 

 solemnly enquired if it were alive. 



