366 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



or three minutes elapse, when he gobbles a sort of 

 chuckle much nearer than before. A couple of very 

 low, short yelps are given, and I drop the leaf from my 

 fingers, cock my rifle, raise it to my face, resting both 

 elbows on my knees, for I am confident he is going to 

 pass in sight somewhere along the glade, my expectation 

 being that he will show up opposite me, on the other side. 

 Not a strut or a gobble is heard, and I know he is moving 

 slowly and carefully. The silence heightens the intensity 

 of my feelings; my nerves are strung to tightest tension; 

 nothing could escape my eye now. In about two minutes 

 ten, it seems I catch a glimpse of his white head across 

 the glade in the bushes; it is held perfectly still for a 

 moment, and, as it moves, there comes gliding from the 

 bushes, easily as oil, noiselessly as a spirit, shyly as 

 modesty undressed the very embodiment of suspicion 

 and wariness the glossy form of this wily Anight of the 

 forest. Before he reaches the glade, he stops and stands 

 erect, his neck stretched high, his head turned to one side 

 in listening attitude, his feathers pressed close like mail 

 of steel; and, as he stands, he looks as though he could 

 dissolve from view in the twinkling of an eye. I 

 know that he has come just to take a peep out into 

 the glade, and that no time is to be lost. There is a 

 quick but steady glance along the barrel, and the silver 

 bead freezes in the notch of the rear sight, and settles, 

 with the steadiness and fixedness of a ton weight, right 

 on the center line of his body, just above the point of the 

 breast-bone, when instantly the hair-trigger is touched, 

 followed by the murderous crash of the report, and a 

 quick vision of flying feathers, right and left, outspread 

 wings, and head thrown convulsively back. Springing 

 instantly up, I go to him at once, stepping the distance, 

 which is exactly sixty-nine steps. He seemed to have 

 been paralyzed by the shot, so, when I reached him, I saw 



