VANISHING NIGHT HERONS 



out of the woods onto the shore of the 

 pond with a big muzzle-loading army 

 musket under my arm my first hunting 

 expedition and scaring up a great blue 

 heron. 



I had been reading the " Arabian 

 Nights," and knew that the roc was a 

 great bird that darkened the sun and car- 

 ried off elephants in his talons. Very well, 

 here was the very bird in full flight before 

 me, darkening the entire cove with his 

 wings. Es-Sindibad of the Sea might be 

 tied to the leg of this one for aught I 

 knew. Mechanically the old musket came 

 to my shoulder and roared, and when I 

 had picked myself up and collected the 

 musket and my senses, there lay the bird 

 on the beach, dead. But he was still an 

 " Arabian Nights' " sort of a bird for one 

 of his dimensions had vanished, his bulk. 

 He was all bill, neck, legs, and feathers, 

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