The Glen of the Herons 



The eyes of the young herons are of a singularly bright 

 yellow colour, and their skin is of a curio.us hue, a sort of 

 smoky blue. Thus the tree of the herons was still fully 

 occupied more than sixteen weeks after the first eggs were 

 laid a protracted nesting season. 



I do not think the herons use the burn of their own 

 glen for their fishing, but along the banks of the sea loch 

 they can be seen at every state of the tide as they stand 

 motionless and expectant on the lookout for fish. Often, 

 after dusk has fallen, I have been startled by the harsh alarm 

 scream of the heron as, disturbed in his fishing, he has 

 flitted past in the twilight like a restless spirit. 



But it is not alone on fish that the heron feeds. In the 

 spring, at the mating season of the frogs, he takes great toll 

 of these clammy creatures and feasts also on their spawn : 

 indeed, in late March every little knoll round the nesting 

 tree is thick with half disintegrated masses of this sub- 

 stance. 



The herons at times travel far to their fishing. From 

 one heronry that I know at the north end of the Island of 

 Mull the birds regularly cross the sea to the Island of Coll, 

 more than six miles distant, where many lochans provide 

 them with food in plenty. But the flight of the heron is a 

 thing of labour should the wind be contrary, and I have 

 seen one of these birds arriving not a little weary after his 

 overseas flight, so that he was full glad to rest on the 

 rocky shore of this rugged island lying to the westward of 

 Mull. 



Amongst the bird world the heron is a bird o? evil omen. 

 Nowhere is he left unmolested. The tribe of the plovers 

 pursue him relentlessly, the sea swallows dart angrily at him 

 when he blunders across their path ; all the gulls are his 

 enemies. He has no friend at all, and yet it is hard to see 

 why he should be held as an outcast, for he rarely attacks, 

 and seems only too glad to escape notice, though unluckily 

 for him he seldom succeeds in doing so. It may be that 



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