May 



one day a large and unknown specimen. For 

 four days and four nights I cherished the delu- 

 sion that it was a bittern — a slightly vulgar 

 and questionable member of the heron family. 

 Not that this was anything to be particularly 

 boastful about, but it was at least something 

 fresh, and like other people I sometimes like to 

 make new acquaintances, even if I drop them. 

 I had a faint misgiving, however, that I was in 

 error, and consulted his remains in the Museum. 

 Every ornithologist will sympathize with me in 

 my mortification when I found that it was no 

 bittern, but only an immature night heron! 

 Of all the mistakes one can make in this pur- 

 suit, the most humiliating is that of reckoning 

 some half-grown wretch as a new species. 



Among some blossoms that kindly open be- 

 fore the leaves are out, appeared, on the 5th of 

 the month, the first humming-bird — the most 

 exquisite gem in all the galaxy. An admirable 

 creation from almost every point of view — as 

 delicate as the cobweb that can cause its death, 

 of such emotional intensity that even terror alone 

 may quench its life, of ethereal mould and re- 

 splendent color, this tropical atom is, notwith- 

 standing, lion-hearted to attack even a man in de- 

 fence of its nest. Valor and grace ne'er found 



151 



