THE HERON : A FEATHERED NOTABLE 103 



and feed its own young, whereupon the tempest 

 would slowly subside, only to be renewed on the 

 appearance of the next great blue bird coming 

 down over the wood. 



One of the most delightful, the most exhilarating 

 spectacles of wild bird life is that of the soaring 

 heron. The great blue bird, with great round 

 wings so measured in their beats, yet so buoyant 

 in the vast void air ! It is indeed a sight which 

 moves all men to admiration in all countries which 

 the great bird inhabits ; and I remember one of 

 the finest passages in old Spanish poetry describes 

 the heron rejoicing in its placid flight. " Have you 

 seen it, beautiful in the heavens ! " the poet 

 exclaims in untranslatable lines, in which the 

 harmonious words, delicado y sonoroso, and the 

 peculiar rhythm are made to mimic the slow 

 pulsation of the large wings. Who has not seen 

 it and experienced something of the feeling which 

 stirred the old writer centuries ago : 



Has visto hermosa en el cielo 

 La garza sonrearse con placido vuelo ? 

 Has visto, torciendo de la mano, 

 Sacra que la deribe por el suelo ? 



The most perfect example I know of in literature 

 in which the sound is an echo to the sense. How 

 artificial and paltry that ornament often seems to 

 us in our poets, even in much-admired passages, 

 such as Goldsmith's white - washed walls and 

 nicely-sanded floor, and the varnished clock that 



