WOODLAND PATHS 



heron sitting on guard at the top of the 

 tree, or astride the eggs on the nest itself. 

 How the long legged mother bird could 

 sit on this loose nest and not resolve it into 

 its component parts and drop the two-inch 

 long eggs to destruction on the peat-moss 

 beneath is still a mystery to me. But she 

 could do it, and the young after they were 

 hatched did it, sometimes six of them, and 

 the nests remained after they were gone, 

 in proof of it. Most birds' nests are mar- 

 vels of construction; the black-crowned 

 night heron's seems a marvel of lack of it, 

 but I think few of us could make so ill a 

 nest so well. 



The night heron's day begins at dusk 

 and ends, as a rule, at daylight. His eyes 

 have all the night-seeing ability of those 

 of the owl, and he finds his way through 

 fog and darkness, and his food as well. 



Yet the bird seems to see well enough by 

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