124 THE “FLICKER” BIRD. 
student of natural history. With most such crea- 
tures naturalists are already familiar. Although 
representatives of their kind are necessary to a 
complete museum, the interest of the student 
does not centre in them. To those seeking 
merely the profit or excitement of the chase, size 
and danger are important factors ; but to those 
who are intent upon knowing the secrets of the 
animal world, the capture of the smallest bird or 
insect, before unknown to naturalists, affords 
more pleasure than to have outwitted and slain 
the fiercest grizzly of the mountains, or the largest 
buffalo of the plains. 
While Mrs. Maxwell made it a rule to shrink 
from nothing that the success of her undertaking 
demanded, she felt far more interest in obtaining 
facts about the “ flicker ” — an unobtrusive little 
bird — than in taking the largest pair of antlers 
the country afforded. About the bird, naturalists 
differ ; and only close search and observation can 
decide the disputed point ; but about animals that 
interest every sportsman from their size, there is 
no particular question. Many times, to shoot a 
buffalo is only an act of barbarism that any un- 
thinking person might perform. However, I 
suppose some people would always feel that I 
had not done my duty by Mrs. Maxwell and 
them, if I do not tell them she did, at one time, 
shoot one of those huge beasts. 
