198 A GREAT BLUE HERON. 



found a few sandpipers and plovers. Near 

 one end of the perfectly level, saryl-covered 

 meadow was a little pool, and my first 

 glance in that direction showed me a great 

 blue heron wading about its edge. With 

 as much quietness as possible I stole out of 

 sight, and then hastened up the railway 

 through a cut, till I had the sun at my back 

 and a hill between me and the bird. Then 

 I began a stealthy approach, keeping behind 

 one object after another, and finally going 

 down flat upon the ground (to roll in the 

 soil is an excellent method of cleansing 

 one's garments on Cape Cod) and crawling 

 up to a patch of bayberry bushes, the last 

 practicable cover. 



Here let me say that the great blue heron 

 is, as its name implies, a big bird, stand- 

 ing almost as high as an ordinary man, and 

 spreading its wings for nearly or quite six 

 feet. Its character for suspiciousness may 

 be gathered from what different writers have 

 said about it. "He is most jealously vigi- 

 lant and watchful of man," says Wilson, 

 " so that those who wish to succeed in shoot- 

 ing the heron must approach him entirely 

 unseen, and by stratagem." "Extremely 



