72 THE LOOK 



saw nothing, but after a time a few spicks were seen in the 

 distance. They are gulls (Sterna maxima,) and now I ask my- 

 self the question, "Will they come near enough for me to get 

 a shot at them V As nearer they come I crouch down lower 

 and lower, scarcely daring to breathe, my gun resting over the 

 levee with both barrels cocked ready for action. Nearer and 

 nearer they come. Now they are within easy gunshot. Slowly 

 and carefully I raise my gun and glance along the clean brown 

 tubes and pull the triggers of both barrels. Hastily running 

 down I find that I have obtained two very fine specimens of 

 the Royal Tern. As I picked one of them up I could not but 

 notice how handsome it was. Its breast was pure white, wings 

 of a slaty color, and the back of its head was jet black. The 

 bill was orange-yellow and the feet and tarsus were jet black. 

 Picking up my birds I was about to resume my journey, when 

 chancing to look toward the south I saw a curious and (to me) 

 new bird swiftly flying toward me. Hastily shoving in a load 

 of No. 4 shot I awaited developments. The bird kept right on, 

 seeming not to mind me in the least. As it came opposite me 

 I gave it both barrels, one after the other, but to my chagrin I 

 missed both of them. So swiftly did it fly that although it 

 sailed within twenty-five feet of where I stood yet I could not 

 hit it. The bird seemed to belong to the Kite family from the 

 brief sight which I had of him. 



Seeing a flock of birds alight in a clump of bushes a short 

 distance inland I pushed my way through the sow palmetto to- 

 ward them. As I reached the clump the flock of grackles 

 ( Tinscahis qidscula aglaens,) for such they proved to be, left 

 the bushes and flew rapidly inland, but not before I had suc- 

 ceeded in securing three of them. 



I was brought from a reverie into which I had fallen by the 



