Northern Observations of Inland Birds 221 



As becomes good anglers, herons are possessed of 

 unusual quick-sightedness. Stalk him never so carefully, 

 it is very difficult to surprise a heron, for usually he 

 arranges his standpoint so that his head would become 

 visible long before his body hove in view — that is, so 

 that he can see long before he is seen. When in Canada 

 I was particularly impressed by the alertness of these 

 birds, for immediately one enters a lake the heron sees 

 the canoe long before he himself is seen, and flaps idly 

 off while still at a great distance. Generally speaking, 

 the sight of birds and animals is inferior to our own — or 

 rather, they do not seem to possess the gift of looking 

 into the distance. 



Herons are very united in purpose — that is, their 

 sense of fellow citizenship is highly developed, in that 

 they will readily unite to achieve an end which is bene- 

 ficial to the community as well as to the individual. I 

 have never had an opportunity of closely observing a 

 heronry, but a Canadian with whom I travelled a good 

 deal gave me no little interesting information about one 

 which he had under observation one spring and summer. 

 There were a number of nests, some in the pine trees 

 and some in the crags which the pines overhung. One 

 day he noticed a great disturbance among the parent 

 birds, which kept swooping and striking, one after 

 another, at something in the branches. Presently he made 

 out the object of their anger to be a large animal, ascending 

 towards one of the nests, which the whole heron clan 

 was protecting, and as he watched the creature was 

 hurled from the branches by a well-directed blow from 

 one of the adult birds. Thereupon the whole flight 

 descended, croaking and flapping through the branches, 

 evidently intent on dispatching their already wounded 

 foe. Going up to the place some time later, he found 

 the raider was no less formidable a beast than a 



