CONCERNING EYES 185 



in the middle of winter. Here I sought for and 

 found him waiting on his perch for the sun to set. 

 He eyed me so calmly when I aimed my gun, I 

 scarcely had the heart to pull the trigger. He 

 had reigned there so long, the feudal tyrant of 

 that remote wilderness ! Many a water-rat, steal- 

 ing like a shadow along the margin between the 

 deep stream and the giant rushes, he had snatched 

 away to death; many a spotted wild pigeon had 

 woke on its perch at night with his cruel crooked 

 talons piercing its flesh ; and beyond the valley on 

 the bushy uplands many a crested tinamou had 

 been slain on her nest and her beautiful glossy 

 dark green eggs left to grow pale in the sun and 

 wind, the little lives that were in them dead be- 

 cause of their mother's death. But I wanted that 

 bird badly, and hardened my heart ; the ' ' demonia- 

 cal laughter" with which he had so often answered 

 the rushing sound of the swift black river at even- 

 tide would be heard no more. I fired ; he swerved 

 on his perch, remained suspended for a few mo- 

 ments, then slowly fluttered down. Behind the 

 spot where he had fallen was a great mass of 

 tangled dark-green grass, out of which rose the 

 tall, slender boles of the trees ; overhead through 

 the fretwork of leafless twigs the sky was flushed 

 with tender roseate tints, for the sun had now gone 

 down and the surface of the earth was in shadow. 

 There, in such a scene, and with the wintry quiet 

 of the desert over it all, I found my victim stung, 

 by his wounds to fury and prepared for the last 



