8o WOODLAND, MOOR, AND STREAM 



olive-green. These tones are so disposed, however, 

 that the eye is satisfied. Every one who has studied 

 birds and animals in their haunts must have noted 

 how the colouring of the creatures harmonises with 

 their surroundings. So much the better for them. 



I have studied him in many different places since 

 my boyhood on the moorlands, by river and stream, 

 in the meadows and ploughed fields ; among the lush 

 tangled herbage of a bog swamp, and in the trees ; 

 and my affection for the heron has strengthened with 

 my knowledge of him and his ways. 



Let us observe him where I knew him first. 

 Morning, noon, and night, according to the flow and 

 ebb of the tide, you will find him on the sea-shore. 

 Speaking from my own experience, the herons are 

 more numerous there in winter than in summer. The 

 parts of the shore close to the marshes left bare by 

 the tide are singularly lonely. The sun shines hotly 

 on the dreary flats, and the pools flash and glitter. 

 With the exception of a pair of Ring Dotterels piping 

 about, not another sound is to be heard. The hot 

 air quivers over the flats and saltings ; not even a 

 gull is to be seen, for they are having a rest by some 

 shallow pool, clear as crystal, in the marshes near at 

 hand. Mud flats and pools mingle together in a 

 blue flickering haze in the distance. There is no life 



