BOYHOOD AND BIEDS. 
61 
saw it alight in some higli trees on a plantation half a mile 
distant, when my gun was loaded with great care, and I fol- 
lowed with the same success as before. And so that whole 
afternoon was passed, crawling up ditches and fence-rows, 
through the briars ; over ploughed ground, rough stones — 
through marsh and puddle — amidst stumps and weeds, and 
last year's stubble, until, as night closed and this malicious 
phantom-bird had disappeared beneath its shadows — 
I e'en creep fortli, all bruised and torn, 
Sore, hungry, weary and forlorn ! 
I did not soon forget that evening's experience, and the 
only consolation I had when I came out of the chase in 
such dismal plight, was, that I had left it convinced of this 
being the mocking bird. 
I had vaguely suspected this when I first saw^ the white 
bars across the wings ; but then the difficulty in getting near 
enough to see the general color, combined with the improb- 
ability of such a bird being here — for I had as soon expected to 
have seen a bird of Paradise — had prevented me from realizing 
it until the accidents of the pursuit enabled me to see the 
dark blueish gray of the back, and then I was satisfied. 
This discovery only added to my eagerness ; but the result 
of the day's work left me with no stomach for such another 
chase. 
Taking these two receptions together, it is little to be won- 
dered at that the Pioneer Birds should regard ours as a rather 
inhospitable region, and for a long time continue to give 
wide berths to every creature bearing the detestable effigy 
of their persecutors. 
Although the old man B. and myself had undoubtedly the 
worst of it, yet it was altogether natural and proper that the 
proud and conscious lords of song should treat us with hau- 
teur as boorish and ignorant beings, who, incapable of appre- 
ciating the divine harmonies they were come to bestow upon 
