2i6 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



coupled often with their plaintive calls, are very apt to 

 be misunderstood by sympathetic people. This is 

 inevitably so, as it is very often impossible to find for 

 the captive a suitable mate, because many birds and 

 beasts marry only for love ; but it will be seen at once 

 that these instinctive yearnings are quite distinct from any 

 desire to wander — a rather useless ambition, peculiar to 

 ourselves. There are, of course, a few exceptions, but 

 generally speaking a wild captive properly fed and cared 

 for lives a happy life, and it is curious that those which 

 travel furthest in a wild state, namely the eagles, vultures, 

 and falcons, are, when well looked after in captivity, 

 the most restful and content — happy to sit for hours on 

 end in one position, often without movement. 



Our friend the heron — I had almost said angler's 

 friend, but I fear the title might not be acceptable to all 

 — is, in a wild state, one of the most regular birds I know. 

 He loves to set himself a daily routine, and to stick to 

 it as nearly as possible by Greenwich time. As to whether 

 he may safely be termed the angler's friend is largely a 

 matter of personal taste. True that he shares the spoils 

 of the stream, but nevertheless he is a part of its atmo- 

 sphere of romance and freedom which to many of the 

 keenest devotees of the sport is as important as the actual 

 taking of fish. Many of us are known to fish at times 

 when we realize that there is precious little chance of 

 material results. We fish because we love the stream 

 or the river or the loch as the case may be — because its 

 associations make failure worth while. Even the drip- 

 drip of the rain among the alders, when the mist wraiths 

 hide the hills from view, is a sound not entirely devoid 

 of music, for it is part of the wild charm which appeals 

 to the primeval man within us — to be alone with the 

 things God made, satisfying a native desire to find food 

 for ourselves, to wring a living from the wild. This 



