OPOSSUMS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 331 



pickerel which we had been saving to show to our 

 guests when they should ask how the fish were bit- 

 ing. The heads had been hung on trees to dry, 

 and their mouths we propped open with sticks to 

 give greater effect to the trophies; a bunch of wild 

 ducks supplied their legs for the nondescript birds. 

 We made a half-dozen of these absurd birds and 

 set them up on stumps and stones all around, out- 

 side the cabin, and they were 



THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS, BLAMEDEST LOOKING 

 THINGS EVER SEEN. 



The pickerel heads were astonishingly bird-like, 

 yet bore no relationship to any living fowl. In 

 fact there was such an air of possibility and reality 

 about the creations that they would deceive almost 

 anyone, and yet with their rabbit tails, or feather 

 tails, neat brown feathered backs and wings, strad- 

 dling duck legs, with gaping pickerel heads, they 

 belonged more to Welsh rarebit dreams than to 

 this prosaic world. 



When the two sportsmen returned with their 

 baggage and guns they hailed me as they drove 

 up, asking, "What chance is there for shooting?" 

 To which I replied with a dubious shake of the 

 head: "I'm afraid it is a very poor place; there 

 don't seem to be anything but kill-a-loo birds 

 around this fall." 



"KILL-A-LOO BIRDS?" 

 they shouted in chorus. "We never heard of 



