io8 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



The bird, however, disappeared at the report ; and 

 thinking I had killed him I went to the spot. 



It was a small, isolated bed of rushes I had seen 

 him in ; the mud below and for some distance 

 round was quite bare and hard, so that it would 

 have been impossible for the bird to escape without 

 being perceived ; and yet, dead or alive, he was not 

 to be found* After vainly searching and re-searching 

 through the rushes for a quarter of an hour I gave 

 over the quest in great disgust and bewilderment, 

 and, after reloading, was just turning to go, when 

 behold ! there stood my Heron on a rush, no more 

 than eight inches from, and on a level with, my 

 knees. He was perched, the body erect, and the 

 point of the tail touching the rush grasped by its 

 feet ; the long slender tapering neck was held stiff, 

 straight and vertically ; and the head and beak, 

 instead of being carried obliquely, were also pointing 

 up. There was not, from his feet to the tip of his 

 beak, a perceptible curve or inequality, but the whole 

 was the figure (the exact counterpart) of a straight 

 tapering rush : the loose plumage arranged to fill 

 inequalities, and the wings pressed into the hollow 

 sides, made it impossible to see where the body 

 ended and the neck began, or to distinguish head 

 from neck or beak from head. This was, of course, 

 a front view ; and the entire under surface of the 

 bird was thus displayed, all of a uniform dull yellow, 

 like that of a faded rush, I regarded the bird wonder- 

 ingly for some time ; but not the least motion did 

 it make. I thought it was wounded or paralysed with 



