LEVY, THE STORY OF AN EGRET 



the scattered 

 growth of button 

 ushes covering a 

 small marshy island in 

 a southern lake, several 

 pairs of American 

 egrets for some years 

 built their summer 

 habitations. They 

 made no effcfrt to hide 

 their bulky nests, 

 which were simply 

 placed there in the 

 bushes, the most of 

 them barely a yard 

 above the mud. Their 

 greatest enemy was 

 man and hardly could they have found a place more free 

 from his inroads than this island in a sequestered lake. 



But we sought out their village one March day, my com- 

 panion and I, and when we scraped the slimy mud from 

 our feet and trousers, and clambered again into the boat, 



[153] 



