LITTLE RED HERON 107 



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 flappers, 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 assimilating 

 to that of the dead yellow and brown-spotted rushes 

 always found amongst the green ones ; but I did 

 not know for many years that the bird possessed a 

 marvellous instinct that made its peculiar conforma- 

 tion and imitative colour far more advantageous 

 than they could be of themselves. 



One day in November when out shooting, I noticed 

 a Variegated Heron stealing off quickly through a 

 bed of bulrushes, thirty or forty yards from me ; 

 he was a foot or so above the ground, and went so 

 rapidly that he appeared to glide through the rushes 

 without touching them. I fired, but afterwards 

 ascertained that in my hurry I had missed my aim. 



