174 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



that during spells of bad weather, wluii it is com]>elled to suffer the pangs of famine 

 inac-tive, it contracts a meagre consumptive habit of body which subsequent plenty 

 cannot remove. A jiretly theory ; but it will not liold water: for in this region s]pells 

 of bad weather are brief and infreijuent ; moreover, all other species that feed at the 

 same table with the licron, from the little flitting Cerijle to the towering flamingo, 

 become excessively fat at certain seasons, and are at all times so healthy and vigorous 

 that, compared with them, the heron is but the ghost of a bird. In no extraneous cir- 

 cumstances, but in the organiz;ition of the bird itself, must be sought the cause of its 

 anomalous con<lition. It does not ap|>ear to jiossess the fat-elaborating power; conse- 

 (juenlly no provision is made for a rainy day, and the misery of the bird consists in its 

 jierjielual, never-satisfied craving for food. 



"The heron has but one attitude, — motionless watchfulness; so that, when not 

 actually on the wing or taking the few desultory steps it occasionally ventures on, and 

 in whatever situation it may be ]il;iced, the level ground, the summit of a tree, or in 

 continement, it is seen drawn u[i, motionless, and ajiparently ap:itlietic. liut when we 

 remember that this is the bird's attitude during many hours of the night and day, 

 when it stands still as a reed in the water; that in such a ]POsture it sees every shy 

 and swift creature that glances by it, and darts its wea]ion with unerring aim and 

 lightning rapidity, and with sucli force that I have seen one drive its beak quite 

 through the body of a fisli very much too large for the bird to swallow, and cased in 

 bony armor, it is inij)ossible not to think that it is observant and keenly sensible of 

 everything going on about it." 



The herons are remarkable for their habits of perching and nesting on trees, not- 

 withstanding their long neck and legs, and their 'gressorial' feet. But the length 

 an<l the low ]iositii)n of the hind toe en.ibles them to live an arboreal life, which seems 

 so incongruous with the ix'st of their structure. We quote again from ilr. Hudson : " In 

 the variegated heron (Ardetta i7ivolncns) [a bittern inhabiting southern South Amer- 

 ica], the least of the tribe, the jicrching faculty ]>robably attains its greatest jierfection, 

 and is combined with locomotion in a unicpie and wonderful manner. This little 

 heron frequents beds of reeds growing in rather deep water. Very seldom, and jirob- 

 ably only accidentally, does it visit the land; and only when distm-bed does it rise 

 above the reeds, for its flight, unlike that of its congeners, is of the feeblest; but it 

 lives exclusively amongst the reeds, that, smooth as a ])olished pipe-stem, rise verti- 

 cally from water too dee|> for the l)ird to wade in. Yet the heron goes up to the 

 summit or down t<> the sin-face, and moves freely and briskly about amongst them, 

 and runs in a straight line tliniugh them almost as rapidly as a ]ilover runs over the 

 bare level ground. 



"When driven from its haunt, the bird flies eighty or a himdred yards off, and 

 drops again amongst the rushes; it is ditlicidt to flush it a second time, but a third 

 impossible. And a very curious circumstance is that it also seems quite impossible to 

 find the bird in the spot where it finally settles. This 1 attributed to the slender 

 figure it makes, and to the color of the jilumage so closely resendding that of the 

 withering yellow and spotted reeds always to be found amongst the green (mes; but 

 I did not know for many years that the bird possessed a marvellous instinct that made 

 its peculiar conformation and imitative color far mure advantageous than they could 

 be of themselves. 



"One day in November, 1)^70, when out shooting, I noticed a little heron stealing 

 off quickly through a bed of rushes, thirty or forty yards from me; he was a foot or 



