WOODLAND PATHS 



plume hunters after all and fled north for 

 safety. Probably I shall never see snowy 

 egrets again, though they used to stray 

 north as far as this on occasions. Now, 

 even the night heron, which used to nest 

 hereabout in colonies of hundreds, is rarely 

 seen. 



I suppose if bird species must become, 

 one by one, extinct, we can as well afford 

 to lose the night heron as any. He is not 

 a particularly beautiful bird in appear- 

 ance, though these four seemed handsome 

 enough as they sailed grandly down into 

 the trees on the pond border. His voice 

 is unmelodious. Quawk is only a con- 

 venient handle for his one word. It should 

 rather be made up of the roughest con- 

 sonants in the language, thrown together 

 with raucous vigor. It sounds more like 

 " hwxzvck ! " shot into the mud out of a 



damp cloud. The voices of night herons, 

 244 



