II2 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
He said he had flushed it fom a rush-bed, and as 
the bird flew away over dry land, he gave chase, and 
soon ran it down and captured it; but though 
perfectly uninjured it quickly died in his hand. As 
it was too late in the evening for me to deal with it 
I put it in a cage which had once been used to keep 
a Cardinal Finch in and hung it up under the veranda 
where it would be safe from cats. Next morning 
to my very great astonishment it was gone! A 
long-dead bird in a closed cage hung high up out of 
the way for safety, and now it was not there! How 
explain such a things There was no possible ex- 
planation, and it made me perfectly miserable for 
days thinking of it. Then at last it dawned on my 
weary brain that my dead bird had been alive all the 
time, that life had at all events come back to it, and 
that by squeezing its thin body edgeways through 
the wire it made its escape. Yet the wires were 
close enough to keep a Cardinal in confinement ! 
NIGHT-HERON 
Nycticorax obscurus 
Above ashy; front white; head, neck, and scapulars greenish black ; 
long crest plumes white; beneath pale; length 26, wing 12 inches. 
In the Argentine Republic the Night-Heron lives 
in communities, and passes the hours of daylight 
perched inactive on large trees or in marshes on the 
rushes, and when disturbed by day they rise up with 
