VANISHING NIGHT HERONS 



layers of these wooden young scions of 

 the family Nycticorax nycticorax nczvius. 

 They never refused a fish. As long as I 

 stood by, their beaks, having closed as well 

 as possible on the very last piece required 

 to stuff them to the tip, would remain 

 closed. After they thought I had gone 

 away they would stalk gravely round a 

 corner, look over the shoulder with an 

 innocence which was peculiarly blear- 

 eyed, then, believing the coast clear, yawn 

 the whole feeding into obscurity in the tall 

 grass. Then they would stalk medita- 

 tively forth with hands clasped behind the 

 back, so to speak, and gape for some more. 

 This was positively the only thing they 

 did except to wait patiently for a chance 

 to do it again, and I soon tired of them 

 and took them back to the rookery, where 

 they were received and, so far as I could 

 see, taken care of, either by their own par- 

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