TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



observed in setting all decoys. The first tern which hovered 

 near, suspiciously regarding these by no means artistic imita- 

 tions, was shot before his suspicions became certainties, and 

 from this everything was easy, for another followed at once — 

 attracted this time by the real bird — only to share the same 

 fate, and another, and yet another from the same small flock, 

 and afterwards a gull came to look on. Now these dead birds 

 were stuck up, three of them on the sand, head pointing to the 

 wind ; the fourth, with its wings spread as well as could be, 

 was suspended upon a stout wire stuck in the sand, and waved 

 to and fro in the breeze as though hovering over the others. 

 The dead gull was tied to a long line, the other end of which 

 was made fast within the hidden shelter, and directly terns came 

 in sight it was thrown into the air, the gunner meanwhile 

 imitating the note of the tern with his mouth. As fast as the 

 lined gull fell upon the sands, it was drawn quickly in and 

 re-thrown, and quite a number of terns responded to this lure 

 and at the sight of the natural decoys, and were forthwith shot. 

 Gulls, curiously, were alarmed instead of attracted by the dead 

 bird thrown up, and sheered off, but would come to the sitting 

 terns, or to a dead bird of their own species, if the gunner kept 

 quiet. 



Many other birds are attracted by similar methods, which, 

 allowable enough if the birds are wanted for a collection or for 

 eating, should not be permissible for the purposes of " trade " 

 (see pp. 201-205). 



The collecting of birds leads at once to the collecting of 

 their nests and eggs, and, unfortunately, the procuring of the 

 latter as so many "sorts," in the same manner that postage- 

 stamps are collected, is often the only aim of the young. 

 Despite what may be said by those to whom a trimly-arranged 

 egg-cabinet is the summit of their ambition, the exhibition of a 

 vast array of egg-shells is on a par with a collection of marine 



