a /iDarsb^lanb Unci&ent 



wood's edge, where now the birds of song 

 were noisy, piping each in his own key. 

 Luck a few minutes later gave me a great 

 opportunity, as I find it recorded in a 

 weather-stained note-book to which I con- 

 fided much more than mere entries of 

 shots and their results, and maybe the 

 flavor of an archer's log will not be bad. 

 At a venture I will transcribe a page : 



Had crept for some distance under cover of a 

 magnolia-bush, — trying to approach a log-cock,— 

 when by some chance an indirect ray of vision 

 fell upon a much larger bird standing in the oozy 

 mud beside a little black puddle. It was a wood- 

 ibis, shining white in the gloomy place. I think 

 it the finest specimen I ever saw. 



You will see that the note in its last 

 sentence bears the inference of a success- 

 ful shot. I recollect it well : sixty yards, 

 and a small rift in a thicket to shoot 

 through — a very trying piece of work for 

 an archer. The flat trajectory of a rifle- 

 ball eliminates such a difficulty ; but an 

 arrow at sixty yards rises five or more feet 

 above the line of sight, — of course, I speak 

 of heavy hunting- shafts, — and this often 

 157 



