HERONRY DISTURBED. 21 



round the summits of the trees, as if unwilling to 

 leave the place until they had discovered the 

 cause of the general alarm ; while a few of the less 

 timid even resumed their position on the high 

 boughs. I now raised my glass, and had a capital 

 view of one splendid fellow as he stood, like a 

 guardian angel, over his nest, upright as a falcon, 

 his long, graceful neck extended to the utmost, 

 and his keen glance directed all around, as if it 

 could pierce even through the gloom of the dark 

 wood. 



I need not tell you what a valuable assistant a 

 good spy-glass proves to the practical ornitholo- 

 gist ; you have often heard me speak of its advan- 

 tages in former times ; it is indeed my constant 

 companion ; for although blest with as keen sight 

 as most of my fellow creatures, and although so 

 well acquainted with birds as generally to be able 

 to distinguish a species by the character of its 

 flight at any reasonable distance, yet in investi- 

 gating the habits of many of the less accessible 

 tribes during the breeding-season, in observing 

 the birds which haunt the summits of the Downs, 

 or the great congregations of sandpipers and 

 flocks of wading-birds on the coast, and satisfac- 

 torily making out, not only the various species, 

 but even different gradations of plumage in each, 

 I am deeply indebted to my pocket Dollond ; nor 



