A MAN OF NOTIONS. 309 



We all ran at the top of our speed along the 

 sawdust path to the detachable net at the end of 

 the pipe, where we found six Wild Ducks tearing 

 up and down in the greatest fear and consternation. 

 One old Mallard had struck his head against an 

 iron hoop supporting the wire netting over the 

 decoy pipe, and was lying flat on his back in the 

 last throes of death. 



The decoy-man quickly detached the receiving 

 net, and, taking the wildfowl out one by one, 

 dislocated their necks by a dexterous turn of his 

 wrist. 



He was distinctly a man of notions, for he told 

 us that he had invented a method for making up 

 for his decline in speed (the result of thirty years' 

 hard wear and tear at the pipes and gamekeeping) 

 when running from one show place to another along 

 the side of the pipe. He had fixed a red handker- 

 chief on a stick at the next show place to the head 

 one, so that directly he frightened the birds by his 

 appearance he could pull a string and hoist it, 

 and thus prevent any wildfowl in the pipe from 

 turning round and flying back before he reached 

 the place. He also told us that he sometimes uses 

 a tethered lure Duck at the mouth of the pipe, and 

 has an idea that, if a long, narrow mirror were 

 hung across the decoy at a certain height above 

 the water, the birds outside, seeing themselves in 

 it, would swim up, thinking that their reflections 

 represented other and bolder members of their 

 species. 



He was, in addition to being a skilled hand at 

 the pipes, a most kindly, good-natured fellow. One 

 morning we visited his cottage at six o'clock, and 

 found him bustling about and feeding some poor 

 old wayfarer, who had dropped in to see him, with 



