A FROG IN HIS THROAT 



CHAPTER XVII 



The Blue Heron: Ardea Herodias 



IN THE GREAT LAKE REGIONS 



I FOUND this Blue Heron myself, hunted him to his favourite 

 feeding grounds alone, then secured these studies of him, which 

 may be the reason I am so especially fond of them. I was stop- 

 ping at a little boarding-house on the Inland Route, and with 

 my boat had access to half a dozen lakes and rivers which make 

 up this chain. The small river nearest us opened shortly into a 

 large lake. From my room Blue Herons could be seen sweeping 

 above the water morning after morning, settling in one spot, 

 which seemed easy to locate. The Deacon probably had good 

 reason to be nervous about my entering those swamps and 

 forests alone. But one day he was away trout-fishing; Molly- 

 Cotton was trying, under the instruction of the landlady, to pre- 

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