DECOYS FOK WILD FOWL. 233 



having •scraped into Mich a state of acquaintancG, 

 familiarity, and friendship, that, liwiving where 

 I lived, he would come in sprimj to my door, 

 not only on my little lawn, but ahsolutely to the 

 door, and ^'curl" at the breakfast-room window, — 

 his wings down, his cheeks and ears red, his horns 

 up, his tail spread like a flm over his back till 

 it touched his head, and, stamjnng round and round, 

 throwing out the soft sort of tremulous ^^ coo "in 

 tone resembling that of a Avood-pigeon ? He was 

 very civil to all the hen pheasants, but he permitted 

 no cock pheasant to be on the lawn while he was 

 there. He fed on barley thrown from my hand, 

 but he liked oats best ; and I often invited my 

 neighbouring brother sportsmen to see this strange 

 friendship between me and an old wild blackcock 

 of the moors. 



Alas ! that dear mysterious king of the wastes 

 at last died, very near ni}^ house, stricken by a 

 disease in this vicinity that so constantly carries off 

 both old and young of his kind. I have three 

 blackcocks still who know me ; they are always 

 bolder than the grey hens. One of them, an old, 

 rusty-plumaged bird, that I have known for years, 

 will let me pass within forty yards of him when 



