82 BY-WAYVS AND BIRD-NOTES. 
glooms of the woods, where wild flowers of 
many kinds grew in profusion. 
We had proceeded but a few hundred yards 
when I caught sight of a pretty, dappled fawn 
peering out at us with its great, mellow eyes 
from a clump of green shrubs. I now felt 
deeply vexed with myself for allowing the un- 
reasonable importunities of the guide to cause 
me to leave my trusty rifle behind at his cabin. 
But a moment later, when the lissom, young 
animal against which I was aiming imaginary 
bullets sped away like the very spirit of merri- 
ness, I did not regret the gun. The common 
wild birds of the woods were everywhere. 
Blue jays and yellow finches, fly-catchers, 
nut-hatches and thrushes made a great chirp- | 
ing and twittering along with the mingled | 
rustlings of theirwings. I noted six or seven | 
varieties of woodpecker, among them the | 
ivory-bill and that great, scarlet-crested, black 
king of the woods named bythe naturalists | 
fTylotomus pileatus. Water fowls of the | 
smaller kinds flew up before us, and occasion- | 
ally a blue heron or a small wader of the bit- | 
tern kind took wing in its peculiarly stately | 
way. 
A belted kingfisher, that most beautiful of | 
all our birds of the streams, suddenly appeared 
in the air just in front of me, where he hoy- | 
ered for a moment as if doubtful whether to | 
fly over us and go up the river or to turn | 
about and retreat before us. He chose the 
latter. As he did so he uttered that sharp| 
little laugh every angler has heard. O beauti- 
ful bird! your laugh has an evil ring! O 
halcyon / there is a great icicle in your heart, 
no matter how fine the weather you bring. 
