10.2 ARDEID.E. 



The Variegated Heron is the least of the family to which it belongs, 

 its body being no bigger than that of the Common Snipe ; but in struc- 

 ture it is like other Herons, except that its legs are a trifle shorter in 

 proportion to its size and its wings very much shorter than in other 

 species. The under plumage is dull yellow in colour, while all the 

 other parts are variegated with marks of fuscous and various shades of 

 brown and yellow. The body is extremely slim, and the lower portion 

 of the neck covered with thick plumage, giving that part a deceptively 

 massive appearance. The perching faculty, possessed in so eminent a 

 degree by all Herons, probably attains its greatest perfection in this 

 species, and is combined with locomotion in a unique and wonderful 

 manner. It inhabits beds of rushes growing in rather deep water ; 

 very seldom, and probably only accidentally, does it visit the shore, and 

 only when driven up does it rise above the rushes ; for its flight, unlike 

 that of its congeners, is extremely feeble. The rushes it lives amongst 

 rise, smooth as a polished pipe-stern, vertically from water too deep for 

 the bird to wade in ; yet it goes up to the summit and down to the 

 surface, moving freely and briskly about amongst them, or runs in a 

 straight line through them almost as rapidly as a Plover can run over 

 the bare level ground. Unless I myself had been a witness of this feat, 

 I could scarcely have credited it ; for how does it manage to grasp the 

 smooth vertical stems quickly and firmly enough to progress so rapidly 

 without ever slipping down through them ? 



The Variegated Heron is a silent solitary bird, found everywhere in the 

 marshes along the Plata, as also in the reed-beds scattered over the 

 pampas. It breeds amongst the rushes, and lays from three to five 

 spherical eggs, of a rich lively green and beautiful beyond comparison. 

 The nest is a slight platform structure about a foot above the water, 

 and so small that there is barely space enough on it for the eggs, which 

 are large for the bird. When one looks down on them they cover and 

 hide the slight nest, and being green like the surrounding rushes they 

 are not easy to detect. 



When driven up the bird flies eighty or a hundred yards away, and 

 drops again amongst the rushes ; it is difficult to flush it a second time, 

 and a third time it is impossible. A curious circumstance is that where 

 it finally settles it can never be found. As I could never succeed in 

 getting specimens when I wanted them, I once employed some Gaucho 

 boys, who had dogs trained to hunt young Ducks, to try for this little 

 Heron. They procured several specimens, and said that without the 

 aid of their dogs they could never succeed in finding a bird, though they 

 always marked the exact spot where it alighted. This I attributed to 

 the slender figure it makes, and to the colour of the plumage so closely 



