BASHFUL DRUMMERS. 219 



dropped behind the wall ; and though I re- 

 mained motionless till a cramp took me, I 

 heard nothing more. " If it had not been 

 for that miserable bush ! " I muttered. But 

 I need not have quarreled with an innocent 

 bush, as if it, any more than myself, had 

 been given a choice where it should grow. 

 A wiser man would have called to mind the 

 old saw, and made the most of " half a 

 loaf." 



Another year passed, and another spring 

 came round. Then, on the same hillside, a 

 bird (probably the same individual) was 

 drumming one April morning, and, as my 

 note-book has it, "I came within one" of 

 taking him in the act. I miscalculated his 

 position, however, which, as it turned out, 

 was not upon the wall, but on a boulder 

 surrounded by a few small pine-trees. The 

 rock proved to be well littered, and clearly 

 was the bird's regular resort. " Very 

 good," said I, " I will catch you yet." 



Five days later I returned to the charge, 

 and was rewarded by seeing the fellow 

 drum once ; but, as before, intervening 

 brush obscured my view. I crept forward, 

 inch by inch, till the top of the boulder 



