under my notice of wild pheasants coming from
the woods to do battle with aviary ones, and also with farm-yard
"roosters."

A highly interesting account of the ludicrous actions and
insensibility to fear of the capercailzie, and blackgame, when
courting (and through which they are easily shot), is given by a
writer on Norway in the Field of March 27, 1875; and this brings us to
the greatest of all aids for the procuring of specimens--I mean the
shot-gun and rifle. So much of success depends upon being a clever
marksman, and also upon having a good general knowledge of woodcraft,
that although for instructions in guns and shooting I refer the reader
to Col. Hawker, Daniel, Blaine, "Stonehenge," Folkard, Greener,
"Wildfowler," and many others, yet a few words on some peculiar, and
in some cases well-known, methods of decoying birds within gunshot,
may not be out of place.

The stalking-horse was, no doubt, the earliest decoy or shield under
which the ancient fowler got near his birds with the crossbow or gun.
It was sometimes a mere framework of wood, covered with painted canvas
to represent a horse or cow, or was a real animal trained to feed and
move in a natural manner in the midst of the fowl. In the first
instance, the fowler carried the framework in front of him, and made
his shot through an opening; in the second case he gently urged the
animal on, hiding behind, and making his shot under the belly, or over
the back. For ancient methods of stalking, see Gervase Markham; for a
modern method, see "Bustard Shooting in Spain," in the Country of Jan.
21, 1875, and current pages of the Field.

Decoying birds by imitating their notes or cries is an art which the
collector must acquire. Many mechanical calls for wood pigeons,
curfews, and other birds are made. One call, which I do not think is
made or used in England, is a Greek idea for decoying thrashes. It is
a whistle formed from two discs of thin silver or silvered copper,
each the size of, or a little smaller than, a "graceless" florin, or
say an inch across; those 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. [Footnote:
Since writing this I find there are now sold to boys, for the large
sum of one-halfpenny, whistles formed in tin, of almost similar
construction to those described. I never yet found anyone to make them
"speak" properly; boys not