LITTLE RED HERON 109 
fear, and, placing my hand on the point of its beak, 
forced the head down till it touched the back; when 
I withdrew my hand up flew the head, like a steel 
spring, to its first position. I repeated the experiment 
many times with the same result, the very eyes of 
the bird appearing all the time rigid and unwinking 
like those of a creature in a fit. What wonder that 
it is so difficult, almost impossible, to discover the 
bird in such an attitude! But how happened it that 
while repeatedly walking round the bird through 
the rushes I had not caught sight of the striped back 
and the broad dark-coloured sides¢ I asked myself 
this question, and stepped round to get a side view, 
when, mirabile dictu, I could still see nothing but 
the rush-like front of the bird! His motions on the 
perch, as he turned slowly or quickly round, still 
keeping the edge of the blade-like body before me, 
corresponded so exactly with my own that I almost 
doubted that I had moved at all. No sooner had I 
seen the finishing part of this marvellous instinct 
of self-preservation (this last act making the whole 
complete) than such a degree of delight and admiration 
possessed me as I have never before experienced 
during my researches, much as I have conversed with 
wild animals in the wilderness, and many and perfect 
as are the instances of adaptation I have witnessed. 
I could not finish admiring, and thought that never 
had anything so beautiful fallen in my way before ; 
for even the sublime cloud-seeking instinct of the 
White Egret and the typical Herons seemed less 
admirable than this; and for some time I continued 
