76 ALONG TI1E HILLSBOBOUGH. 



When it rose upon the wing, indeed, it 

 seemed almost too light, almost unsteady, as 

 if it lacked ballast, like a butterfly. It was 

 the most numerous bird of its tribe along 

 the river, I think, and, with one exception, 

 the most approachable. That exception was 

 the green heron, which frequented the flats 

 along the village front, and might well have 

 been mistaken for a domesticated bird ; let- 

 ting you walk across a plank directly over 

 its head while it squatted upon the mud, and 

 when disturbed flying into a fig-tree before 

 the hotel piazza, just as the dear little ground 

 doves were in the habit of doing. To me, 

 who had hitherto seen the green heron in 

 the wildest of places, this tameness was an 

 astonishing sight. It would be hard to say 

 which surprised me more, the New Smyrna 

 green herons or the St. Augustine sparrow- 

 hawks, which latter treated me very much 

 as I am accustomed to being treated by vil- 

 lage-bred robins in Massachusetts. 



The Louisiana heron was my favorite, as 

 I say, but incomparably the handsomest 

 member of the family (I speak of such as I 

 saw) was the great white egret. In truth, 

 the epithet " handsome " seems almost a 



