INLAND AND ON THE SHORE 61 



gunner's head must also be covered with white. 

 I have found a covering made in the shape of a 

 child's sun-bonnet, with an opening only large enough 

 to expose the eyes, nose, and mouth, the most con- 

 venient thing. It is, of course, worn over the cap. 



Clad thus in white (I wrote a few years ago) amid 

 the white surroundings, one if motionless is practically 

 invisible to the passing fowl. Rarely will the wariest 

 bird detect the trick which is being played upon him till 

 he has come within comfortable range. Were you to 

 throw up a rough heap of snow and stick into it the 

 upper part of a human face just the eyes and nose the 

 piece of face would look very strange to you ; if you had 

 never seen a human face at close quarters before, the 

 piece of it in the snow would look far stranger still. When 

 gulls catch sight of it, it appears to them just about the 

 oddest thing any bird could imagine. They cannot make 

 it out at all. Some are inquisitive to a degree. I have 

 had a gull circling round and round me for minutes at a 

 stretch, and when I have winked at him it has only 

 served as a spur to his curiosity. A hooded crow some- 

 times shows equal inquisitiveness, but greater caution. 

 His prying circumambiency over, he sits down, perhaps 

 fifteen yards away, and stares at you. At length it 

 suddenly flashes upon his corvine brain that there is 

 something uncanny about the lump of snow with a piece 

 of face sticking in it, and he takes a rapid and remarkably 

 flustered departure. 



The stalking-horse, or cow, will, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, give the gunner a chance of approaching 



