SENTRY OF THE SEDGE FLATS 47 



dancing onward to the honey-blossoms. He 

 flickered nearer. To him those unwinking 

 jewels of eyes had no menace. He hovered 

 an instant about two feet above them. In 

 that instant, like a flash of light, the long, pale 

 neck and straight yellow beak shot out ; and 

 the butterfly was caught neatly. Twisting 

 his head shoreward, without shifting his feet, 

 the heron struck the glowing velvet wings of 

 the insect sharply on the sand. Then, having 

 swallowed the morsel leisurely, he drew his 

 head down again between his shoulders, and 

 resumed his moveless waiting. 



The next matter of interest to come within 

 the vision of those inscrutable eyes was a 

 dragon-fly chase. Hurtling low over the 

 sedge-tops, and flashing in the sunlight like 

 a lace-pin of rubies, came a small rose-coloured 

 dragon-fly, fleeing for its life before a monster 

 of its species which blazed in emerald and 

 amethyst. The chase could have but one 

 ending, for the giant had the speed as well as 

 the voracious hunger. The glistening films 

 of his wings rustled crisply as he overtook the 

 shining fugitive and caught its slender body 

 in his jaws. The silver wings of the victim 

 vibrated wildly. The chase came to a hover- 

 ing pause just before that immobile shape 

 on the point of the sand-spit. Again the 



