448 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



morning, bird after bird coming without hesitation ; 

 but, unfortunately, about midday a squall of wind 

 twisted my decoys slightly crooked, and instead of the 

 wild birds flying as before, they came within a very 

 long shot and then sheered off, and I bagged but a 

 dozen in the afternoon instead of fifty or more. 



In the same way, if your decoy birds are not 

 pointing their heads accurately against the wind, the 

 wild birds will not visit them ; no bird, from a tomtit 

 to an albatross, sits or rises or aliyhts except against 

 the wind. He sits head to wind in order that his 

 feathers may not ruffle up, and allow the rain and 

 wind to penetrate to the skin ; and the fact of his 

 sitting head to wind enables him to rise at once when 

 the wings are opened, on a similar principle to a boy's 

 kite. And a bird pitches head to wind, as he can 

 then check the momentum of his flight by expanding 

 the wings to meet the breeze. 



If the woodpigeons notice your decoys are resting 

 with their tails to the wind, they will at once realise 

 their deceptive nature as unmistakable, even at a long 

 distance. A man sitting on his head in his armchair 

 would not appear more unnatural to us. 



The usual system of fixing the decoys is to lash 

 the long sticks, on which they are secured, to the 

 branches or stem of a tree. If an assistant is good 

 at going aloft, and he has some one below to tell him 

 when his decoys are properly set up, all's well ; but it 

 often occurs that after a laborious and perhaps 



