60 BIOGRAPHY. 



as long as a pheasant's body. A lath fastened to one end 

 made a capital tail, and all that was needed was to trim 

 the shoulder to the neck, and put a head on the other end, 

 a nail doing duty for a beak. 



STRUCTURE OF WOODEN PHEASANT. 



By the time that the trees had grown sufficiently for his 

 purpose he had made about a couple of hundred of dummy 

 pheasants. He then threw a few sacks full of beans 

 inside the holly hedge, and laid a train of beans into the 

 preserve. The birds, finding the beans on the ground, 

 naturally followed the trail, and reaching so abundant a 

 supply of food as they saw inside the hedge, flew over it 

 and feasted to their heart's content. Then, not caring to 

 fly, after having gorged themselves, they settled for the 

 night in the yews. 



Meanwhile the wooden pheasants were nailed on the 

 trees in the preserve, and so exactly did they resemble the 

 actual birds that in the dark no one could detect the 

 imposition. Even in daylight the dummy so closely re- 

 presents the bird that a second glance is necessary in 

 order to make sure that it is only an imitation. The ac- 

 companying sketch represents one of these dummies on 

 the outskirts of the preserve. 



