234 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



feeding at the pheasant-stacks, but as yet I can 

 incline liim to no greater fiimiliarity.* 



In arranging decoys for tlie collection of wild 

 fowl for the gun, let me add, that it is necessary 

 to liave a smaller pool here and there in the midst 

 of the larger ones, wired in with rabbit wire- 

 netting, in which to keep teal by way of decoy 

 birds for their fellows. In such cases, there should 

 be a bank around the sides of the pool about four 

 feet high, so as to give shelter from any wind that 

 I3I0WS, as well as to catch the beams of the morning 

 particularly, as well as the afternoon sun, and to 

 afford the sun's warmth to the birds on the sittings 

 at the foot of the bank and on the edge of the 

 water. 



The wire around these little ponds should not 

 he itprigJit, but one-half of it should stand on the 

 bank, and the other project horizontally over and 

 above the sitting. This method of wiring -in a 

 small decoy pool keej^s the pinioned birds safe 

 within their desired location, while, at the same 

 time, it affords a facility for any pinioned birds 

 that may have escaped or strayed to walk over the 



■■" The black game in my vicinity, by the spring of 1874, became 

 extinct, and I have none left. 



