40 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 



not only do he and his mate alight in trees, but they 

 often build their nests in its crotches, and raise their 

 young until strong enough to partially care for them- 

 selves. It looks odd to see them in trees ; about as 

 strange and out of place, as would a turkey or chicken 

 be swimming in the water. As the drake alights on 

 the tree, he settles in the full light of the midday sum- 

 mer's sun; the warm winds play through grass and 

 trees ; pond-lilies, in snowy whiteness or in yellow bon- 

 nets, nod gently in response to the breeze, as it moves 

 so quietly over the rippling water, carrying to the se- 

 creted hunter delicate and sensuous perfumes. The 

 drake gazes intently in the distance, as if his sharp eyes 

 could penetrate woods and fields, and furtively looks 

 around, as if anticipating the approach of an enemy. 

 He sees nothing to alarm him, hears nothing but the 

 faint tinkle of a bell, emitting its irregular and not un- 

 musical sound as the bell-cow "walks slowly along, graz- 

 ing on the bottom-grass. He bends his head gracefullj', 

 and looks down on his mate and their progeny. Each 

 turn of his head, every movement of his body, discloses 

 some new brilliancy of plumage, and he appears like a 

 tropical bird, strayed from palmettoes and fig-trees, and 

 lost amid the woods of the North. It seems to us that 

 such as he would feel lost, in a climate like ours, even in 

 midsummer, for never in Northern woods has his equal 

 in beauty been seen. Looking at him as he sits there, we 

 wonder if he really knows how exceedingly handsome 

 he is ; his clean-cut head, making a perfect outline 

 against the blue sky ; his bright, sparkling eyes enclosed 

 with lids of deepest carmine ; the long tuft descending 

 from the back of his head, and floating in a graceful 

 plume down his neck ; the upper part of liis head be- 



