284 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:7— Oct., 1918 



and deliberately, it lifted its wings and silently it sailed away, 

 to my very great regret. 



But what do you imagine I saw next or almost at the same time ! 

 Why there was another bird of exactly the same kind sitting on 

 that very same shelf and just lifting its wings to fly away. I 

 lost no time nor did I fail to correct my first mistake of aiming 

 too high. I aimed fully two inches further down, fired and, oh 

 joy, down it fell, a dead and lifeless body, now striking the wall, 

 now falling free, now striking it again, then falling free — growing 

 smaller and smaller until it reached the floor of the valley when 

 it looked like a mere speck. 



How happy I felt! Surely this was more fun yet than when I 

 got the marmots for the strange hunter, for this time it was my 

 game and I was not under obligation to keep a secret. 



By the time I reached home it was night and owing to the 

 celebration I found a ready audience; the people looked at the 

 bird that hung over my shoulder, wonderingly; and many a 

 flattering comment was made by the mountaineers on my adven- 

 ture, and what boy wouldn't like such comment! But the joy 

 of the event was marred by jealously. That second class of 

 hunters, of the very type who never refused my help when I met 

 them in my ramblings in the more lonesome regions of the alps, 

 now cast ominous looks at my prize. Why, the very idea of 

 permitting a boy under age to mix in grown up peoples business ! 

 He didn't even have a license and really who gave him the right 

 to carry a gun and endanger honest people's lives! The more 

 they talked the more excited they became. Their faces grew red 

 with anger, their voices loud and hoarse and I for my part actually 

 wished that I had never set eyes on the bird. You must remem- 

 ber that the hunters were half drunk and not at all of the gentle 

 type of folk. 



Of course I felt deeply disappointed and crestfallen at this 

 ungenerous attitude; but my father said that I shouldn't worry, 

 because birds which had robbed the people deserved to be killed, 

 license or no license, and anyway even if they should tell the police, 

 the latter would hardly think it worth while to climb up into our 

 valley to investigate. Besides these comforting words of my 

 father I felt I had the moral support of the mountaineers who 

 greatly appreciated and approved of my adventure, so it came out 

 all right in the end and the episode has proven to be one of my 

 most interesting memories of my boyhood. 



