82 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



The thighs, so carefully shown in the cases, are 

 quite hidden, and only about half the shank is seen 

 beyond the square, blunt ends of the wings. The 

 beak points straight forward, or almost so. It is a 

 loose, hunched-up pose, not elegant, but very nice ; 

 one can smack one's lips over it ; it is like a style in 

 writing — a little slipshod perhaps, like Scott's, as 

 we are told ; ^ but thtn give me Scott's " slipshod " (!) 

 style — I prefer it to Stevenson's, though Stevenson 

 himself did not. Then, again, when the bird is 

 alarmed or thrown on the alert about anything, the 

 long neck is shot, suddenly, forward and upward, not, 

 however, in a curve, but in a straight line, from the 

 end of which another straight line — the head and 

 beak — flies out at a right angle. The neck, also, 

 makes a somewhat abrupt angle with the body, and 

 the whole has a strange, uncouth aspect, which is 

 infinitely pleasing. 



One might suppose that, with its great surface 

 of wing, and the slowness with which it is moved, 

 the heron would rise with some difficulty — as does 

 the condor — and only attain ease and power when 

 at some little height. This, however, is not the 

 case. It will rise, on occasions, with a single flap 

 of the great wings, and then float buoyantly, but 

 just above the ground, not higher than its leg's 

 length — if this can be said to be rising at all. 

 A single flap will take it twenty paces, or more, like 

 this, when, putting its legs down, it stands again, 

 and thus it will continue as long as it sees fit. 



From the length of time which herons spend out 

 on the marshes, or adjoining warrens, they must, I 

 ^ By inappreciative asses. 



