irn tbe MooOs witb tbe JBovv 



command by Jarvis. In it I made some 

 interesting voyages up and down the 

 stream to study the birds that haunted the 

 banks and water. Nowhere else have I 

 ever seen so many kingfishers. They 

 checkered the air in places with the blue 

 streaks of their flight, and their chuckling 

 cries were almost constantly in my ears. 

 Many wood-ducks, probably the same I 

 saw about the back-water pond, flitted over 

 me, or rose from the pools ahead of me. 

 I was tired of Jarvis's eternal corn-bread 

 and pork, hungry for a snack of game, and 

 so I dehberately broke the rule against 

 spring duck-shooting to the extent of bag- 

 ging one beautiful pair, or rather two males, 

 of those toothsome birds. 



A negro tilled a part of Jarvis's little 

 farm, a patch of ground on each side of 

 the river, which here doubled on itself 

 with a short curve. The land looked very 

 rich, and the part cleared was planted in 

 corn. The ducks, to avoid me, adopted the 

 tactics of swinging around the river's arc ; 

 and then, when I came in sight of them, 

 they would cut across the field, flying low, 

 229 



