THE ART OF CAPTURING WILD-FOWL BY DECOY. 65 



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netting, the birds follow the course of the pipe, thinking 1 they can 

 get out at the other end j the fowler continuing' to urge them on, by 

 simply waving 1 his hand as he walks along the bank outside the pipe, 

 until they reach the fatal tunnel from which there is no escape. 



The decoy er then unhooks the tunnel-net j and, by simply twisting 

 or making a turn in it, they are all safely secured. He then drags it 

 to a grass-plat ; and, taking them out one by one, the murderous pro- 

 ceeding of neck-breaking commences: it being indispensably necessary 

 that the decoyer and his assistant should be expert in that unenviable 

 performance, and despatch them with all possible precision.* They 

 are then tossed, one upon another, into a wooden crate made for the 

 purpose; one of which should always be placed against the tail of every 

 pipe; and in this confined space they gasp and struggle many minutes 

 ere life is extinct ; the fowler being careful to avoid knocking them 

 on the head, because they are more marketable when killed in a clean 

 manner, without bruising their bodies or ruffling their feathers. 



* The fowlers of the island of St. Kilda kill a solan goose with great alertness, 

 by dislocating a certain joint of the neck, very near the head. The lower part of 

 the neck of the solan goose is much larger than the upper, and adapted to the pur- 

 pose by which the bird obtains its food ; so that, in absence of skill, it would be 

 difficult and tedious to kill them. Vide Macaulay's History of St. Kilda ; also, post, 

 " Fowling in St. Kilda." 



