82 BY-WAYS AND BIRD- NO TES. 



glooms of the woods, wjiere 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 their wings. I noted six or seven 

 varieties of woodpecker, among them the 

 ivory-bill and that great, scarlet-crested, black 

 king of the woods named by the naturalists 

 Hylotomus 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 hov- 

 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. 



