48 



PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



smaller than, a " graceless " florin, or say an incli across ; these 

 discs are — one fully concave, and the other slightly convex, both 

 have a hole in the centre and are soldered together by their 

 edges in the manner shown in Fig. 10. The concave part is placed 

 in the mouth, pressing against the teeth, and by inspiring the 

 breath and modulating the tones with the closed or open hands, 

 as the case may be, a very perfect imitation of the song-thrush's 

 note is the result. This, the arriving or newly-arrived birds 



Fig. 10.— Decoy "Whistle for Thrushes, &c. 



hear, and, imagining it proceeds from the throat of one of 

 their species, who, entirely at his ease, is letting the ornitho- 

 logical world know how excessively overjoyed he is at his safe 

 arrival, alight in the trees which surround and conceal the 

 treacherous imitator, and quickly fall a prey to the ready gun. 

 So infatuated are they, that enormous quantities are killed by 

 this method early in the season; in fact, I knew one person 

 who shot one hundred and four, besides other birds, to his own 

 gun in one day. 



Quails may be called from a distance if the sportsman hides 

 himself and imitates with his mouth their peculiar cry, " More 

 wet, more wet." 



There are many other birds which come to call in addition to 

 quail. Woodpigeons and doves will sometimes be attracted to 

 an ambush by making a soft cooing noise with the mouth and 

 the hollows of both hands, but the most successful way of 

 procuring both of these birds is to build a hut with boughs in 

 the hedge of a field to which they resort, in which hut the 

 shooter hides himself, keeping perfectly quiet, and not attempt- 

 ing to shoot until the birds have begun feeding, as woodpigeons, 

 or doves, when they first alight " have their eyes all about them," 

 the slight rustle even of the gun being brought to the present, is 

 enough to scare them, and a snap shot at a flying dove is rarely 



