108 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
The bird, however, disapp&red at the report ; and 
thinking I had killed him I went to the spot. 
It was a small, isolated bed of rushes I had seen 
him in; the mud below and for some distance 
round was quite bare and hard, so that it would 
have been impossible for the bird to escape without 
being perceived ; and yet, dead or alive, he was not 
to be found. After vainly searching and re-searching 
through the rushes for a quarter of an hour I gave 
over the quest in great disgust and bewilderment, 
and, after reloading, was just turning to go, when 
behold! there stood my Heron on a rush, no more 
than eight inches from, and on a level with, my 
knees. He was perched, the body erect, and the 
point of the tail touching the rush grasped by its 
feet ; the long slender tapering neck was held stiff, 
straight and vertically; and the head and beak, 
instead of being carried obliquely, were also pointing 
up. There was not, from his feet to the tip of his 
beak, a perceptible curve or inequality, but the whole 
was the figure (the exact counterpart) of a straight 
tapering rush: the loose plumage arranged to fill 
inequalities, and the wings pressed into the hollow 
sides, made it impossible to see where the body 
ended and the neck began, or to distinguish head 
from neck or beak from head. This was, of course, 
a front view; and the entire under surface of the 
bird was thus displayed, all of a uniform dull yellow, 
like that of a faded rush. I regarded the bird wonder- 
ingly for some time; but not the least motion did 
it make. I thought it was wounded or paralysed with 
