82 WOODLAND, MOOR, AND STREAM 



to a bushel measure. Advancing with slow steps 

 between them and the pools, we startle a heron from 

 behind one of the larger ones. Up he springs, with 

 rough, croaking scream, and flaps away with a lazy 

 flight, for his stomach is full, and he has been dis- 

 turbed from a nap in the shade of the mussel scalps. 

 Presently another rises, with a small eel about a 

 foot long wriggling about in his bill, and this gives 

 the alarm to a couple more who were near at hand. 

 It would seem strange to a casual observer that so 

 large a bird could escape notice on the bare flats, but 

 the reason he so often does so and they are rarely 

 seen until you get close to them is that the slub is 

 grey in tone of colouring, also the white breast of the 

 bird falls in with the bright flash of the pools lit up 

 in the sunlight ; one is blended into the other, and 

 the instinct of self-preservation, which is very fully 

 developed in him, saves him often from harm. Like 

 the rook, he has some means of knowing if it is a 

 gun you are carrying, or merely a stick. I have 

 proved this to be so, over and over again I cannot 

 account for it in any way, but the fact remains : if 

 you point a stick at him in gun fashion, he does not 

 mind it in the least ; but a gun presented is the 

 instant signal for speedy flight. 



Like other living creatures, he finds change 



