on my Egrets.



325



they stand with stiffened neck, the fish bulging out the skin, until

after a few minutes it slides into their interiors !


On a stone wall which encloses a pool of water-lilies there

are vases in which grow ancient dwarf Japanese trees (one is two

hundred years old), and on these the egrets often perch. Anyone

might well take them at such moments for Japanese carved ivory.

There are two things they object to. If they see me with a fish-net

in my hand they fly off, although I have never used it for catching

them ; and if my black retriever walks near them they immediately

take wing ; yet several Pekingese dogs can go right up to them.


Up to the middle of August they never flew much, hut after

that they sometimes perched upon the ridge of the barn roofs, from

which elevation they would at once descend with light and silent

wings when they heard my whistle. I wonder whether they were

searching for me when I was absent from home for six days in the

beginning of September, for on my return I was told that on three

consecutive mornings they had taken long flights over the surround¬

ing wooded hills, and had soared up and up until they looked “ no

larger than bumble-bees.” This they had done on the morning of

my return, yet they ceased these charming flights directly they

found me home again. Alarming, because it was thought they were

meditating migration. Certainly they seemed delighted to see me,

so let us hope they will not he so foolish as to leave their happy

home.


I have never had pets more fascinating or more intelligent,

and I may well believe that egrets at full liberty in an English

garden are not to be met with elsewhere in the British Isles.


I have stood and watched them as they waded, sometimes

with the water touching their breasts, when they have a peculiar

mode of stirring up aquatic insects or small fish. One foot is

stretched out in front, the whole leg and foot rapidly trembling,

whilst the bird looks eagerly to see whether anything has stirred

from the mud. Then the other leg is used. The tremolo movement

is very quaint and graceful.


I have seen these little herons, as they waded, reach a spot

where a periwinkle plant hung into the water. One of the egrets,

instead of skirting round it, stretched out its leg, trembled its foot



