Northern Observations of Inland Birds 217 



desire is at the root of all field sports ; we may not really 

 want the '' food " that we obtain by our fishing or our 

 hunting, but it satisfies our virile instincts to take and 

 to kill. So it is that the greatest of relaxations for careworn 

 and civilized men to-day are found by satisfying the 

 desire to return, if only in half measure, to the status of 

 the wild. 



As to whether or not, then, the heron may be described 

 as the angler's friend, depends upon the extent to which 

 we value the wild associations of the stream. 



Personally I am very happy for the heron to take his 

 share of the spoils in return for his presence, for his 

 harsh but drowsy note, heard in the distance above the 

 soft rush of water, intermingled with the call of the 

 cowboy and the yapping of his dog, or the sight of the big 

 grey bird itself rising ghost-like from the foot of the 

 shallows in the gathering dusk, are a part of very cherished 

 associations and remembrances. With Intra, the otter, 

 the heron is a brother angler — an inseparable part of 

 the romance of his settings. Day or night, sunshine or 

 rain, we find them there, and see their tracks on every 

 sandy bar, the bird and the beast to whom our waters 

 are a natural heritage, and whose presence cannot help 

 but add to the feeling of peaceful solitude. 



Angling clubs and individual anglers might take many 

 a good tip from the heron community, which conducts 

 itself in a way which is beneficial both to the individual 

 and the community. Their rules are based on the principle 

 of good fishing for all. One might, indeed, be pardoned 

 for imagining that there exists among the herons some- 

 thing in the way of a club or a gigantic association, having 

 its defined rules and rulers. Certain it is that an entire 

 absence of government, enforced or instinctive, among 

 so many fishermen, each possibly with a hungry family 

 for which to provide, would lead to a state of chaos and 



