KEY WEST PIGEON. 888 



the head of a Pigeon which Dr Stiiobel had sent from Key West, and 

 which I perceived did not belong to the Zenaida Dove. Serjeant Sykes 

 had seen the Pigeon, and acquainted as he was with the birds of the 

 country, he gave some hope that we might procure a few of them that 

 very day ; — and now, for my Journal. 



" Maij 6. 1832. — When I reached the garrison, I found the sergeant 

 waiting for me. I gave him some small shot, and we set off, not in full 

 run, nor even at a dog-trot, but with the slowness and carefulness usually 

 employed by a lynx or a cougar when searching for prey. We soon 

 reached the thickets, and found it necessary to move in truth very slow- 

 ly, one foot warily advanced before the other, one hand engaged in open- 

 ing a passage, and presently after occupied in securing the cap on the 

 head, in smashing some dozens of hungry musquitoes, or in drawing the 

 sharp thorn of a cactus from a leg or foot, in securing our gun-locks, or 

 in assisting ourselves to rise after a fall occasioned by stumbling against 

 the projecting angle of a rock. But we pushed on, squeezed ourselves 

 between the stubborn branches, and forced our way as well as we could, 

 my guide of course having the lead. Suddenly I saw him stoop, and ob- 

 serving the motion of his hand, immediately followed his example. Re- 

 duced by his position to one half of his natural height, he moved more 

 briskly, inclined to the right, then to the left, then pushed forward, and 

 raising his piece as he stopped, immediately fired. " I have it," cried he. 

 '* What?" cried I. " The pigeon"" — and he disappeared. The heat was 

 excessive, and the brushwood here was so thick and tangled, that had not 

 Mr Sykes been a United States soldier, I should have looked upon him 

 as bent on retahating on behalf of " the eccentric naturalist ;" for, al- 

 though not more than ten paces distant from me, not a glimpse of him 

 could I obtain. After crawling to the spot I found him smoothing the 

 feathers of a Pigeon which I had never seen, nay the most beautiful yet 

 found in the United States. How I gazed on its resplendent plumage ! — 

 how I marked the expression of its rich-coloured, large and timid eye, as 

 the poor creature was gasping its last breath I — Ah, how 1 looked on this 

 lovely bird ! I handled it, turned it, examined its feathers and form, its 

 bin, its legs and claws, weighed it by estimate, and after a while formed 

 a winding sheet for it of a piece of paper. Did ever an Egyptian phar- 

 macopolist employ more care in embalming the most illustrious of the 

 Pharaohs, than I did in trying to preserve from injury this most beauti- 

 ful of the woodland cooers ! 



