SENTRY OF THE SEDGE FLATS 53 



know how to wait. He peered up stream 

 for the coming of another and less wary 

 water-rat. 



Instead of the expected ripple, however, 

 he now caught sight of a shadow which 

 flickered across the surface of the water and 

 in an instant had vanished over the pale sea 

 of the grass-tops. He looked up. In the 

 blue above hung poised, his journeying flight 

 just at that moment arrested, a wide- winged 

 duck-hawk, boldest marauder of the air. The 

 heron threw his head far back, till his beak 

 pointed straight skyward. At the same time 

 he half lifted his strong wings, poising himself 

 to deliver a thrust with all the strength that 

 was hi him, On the instant the hawk dropped 

 like a wedge of steel out of the sky, his rigid, 

 half-closed pinions hissing with the speed of 

 his descent. The heron never flinched. But 

 within ten feet of him the hawk, having no 

 mind to impale himself on that waiting spear- 

 point, opened his wings, swerved upward, and 

 went past with a harsh hum of wing-feathers. 

 Wheeling again, almost instantly, he swooped 

 back to the attack, buffeting the air just above 

 the heron's head, but taking care not to come 

 within range of the deadly beak. The heron 

 refused to be drawn from his position of 

 effective defence, and made no movement 



