FROM ACROSS THE SEAS. 189 
the beech-wood around him gave way to the 
noises of the busy day. A gamekeeper passed 
on silent foot; a jay came and ‘ warked’ and 
hunted for acorns; a lithe stoat started to run 
up the tree, smelt something of the keeper, 
and vanished. Still the pigeon sat on. 
Presently a far-away town clock struck ten, 
and the pigeon flapped away between the 
boughs, and up, up till he saw a field of 
swedes in which three more wood-pigeons fed. 
On still, extended wings he slanted down 
to join them. They did not move; but, just 
when he was within thirty yards of them, 
something else did behind a screen of heaped 
branches. The pigeon twisted upwards like a 
flash, but it was too late. 
Bang! 
The heavy report echoed across the fields, 
and the pigeon came down in a lifeless heap. 
He was quite dead. 
Then a man with a gun got up from behind 
the screen of boughs, and slipping out, picked 
him up. 
Still the other three pigeons did not move, 
and good reason had they to remain motion- 
less. They were dead pigeons, like himself, 
set up in life-like attitudes with twigs, to decoy 
him and other hungry travellers. 
