Concerning Eyes. 19! 
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 because of 
their mother’s death. But I wanted that bird 
badly, and hardened my heart; the ‘“‘ demoniacal 
laughter’? with which he had so often answered the 
rushing sound of the swift black river at eventide 
would be heard no more. I fired; he swerved on 
his perch, remained suspended for a few moments, 
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 supreme 
effort. Even in repose he is a big eagle-like bird ; 
now his appearance was quite altered, and in the 
dim, uncertain light he looked gigantic in size—a 
monster of strange form and terrible aspect. Hach 
particular feather stood out on end, the tawny 
barred tail spread out like a fan, the immense tiger- 
