92 THE RETURN OF THE iSTATIVES. 



necessary, with a great deal of caution, lest he 

 should betray his presence." 



A few days after I went again to see my bird, 

 but not a hide or feather was visible. Had he 

 become more adventurous and sailed a degree 

 farther north, or disheartened and so retreated to 

 southern New England, where company could be 

 had for the asking ? Or was it probable that 

 he had come to some untimely end ? Death, more 

 than likely, in the disguise of a flesh-covered taxi- 

 dermist who loves such shining marks, had stalked 

 abroad, and, heeding not the gladsome strain, had 

 gathered him into his coffers. 



Once in my visit to the woods I met one of 

 these " kings of terrors " among the birds, a cold- 

 hearted young man improving his short respite 

 from study, and gratifying his besetting passion. 



He was an unerring marksman, for he had in a 

 leather bag four or five kinds of dead birds, which 

 were carefully enshrouded in nice white paper 

 cornucopise. These he politely exhibited, carefully 

 undoing each parcel, and drawing out his victims 

 with an air of such anxious solicitude that it would 

 have been comical had not the occasion been so 

 sad. Upon inquiring if he had no scruples^ in re- 

 gard to bringing down so many heads and mothers 



