204 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIEDS. 



enough though it sang very well to furnish her with the 

 necessary definition of plumage for a correct drawing. 



Her ambition was to achieve, as nearly as possible, the but- 

 terfly airiness with which this marvellous bird floats upward 

 and around upon the eddying ecstasies of its mighty song. 



It was, perhaps, a presumptuous attempt, but presumption 

 has ever been one synonym of daring. 



She made an hundred studies from the action of the caged 

 bird, all to the same end, but none of them were entirely 

 satisfactory. At last, the conviction came that we must 

 have a specimen bird not a " stuffed specimen," but one 

 warm, and yet throbbing with the last pulses of life that 

 could be placed naturally in the position studied from the 

 living bird, and sketched rapidly before it grew cold in the 

 rigidity of absolute death. 



When my wife announced to me that she must have such 

 a specimen that although she had studied the wild bird on 

 the wing at a distance, and the tame bird near at hand, and 

 had many good ideas of this movement in her sketches yet 

 there were numerous details of outline and finish which it 

 was impossible to achieve without the warm specimen I 

 well recollect my despairing answer 



" The fact is, I would rather face a panther on the bound, 

 than shoot a mocking bird. I hope God will forgive me, but 

 as I see clearly it must be done, it shall be done !" 



This was said with a tragic earnest that must have been 

 comical ; for my wife said, with a quiet smile : " "Well, now, 

 hero as you think you are, I do not believe you can do it !" 

 This conveyed an implication upon my marksmanship, of 

 which I am, by the way, excessively proud, and also upon 

 the firmness of my nerves, which could by no means be en- 

 dured ; so, with a sovereign wave of the hand and an extra 

 straitening of my person, I left the room saying : " You shall 

 see, madam, that my will can accomplish anything that is ne- 

 cessary !" 



Fifteen minutes afterwards we were embarked in a light 



