AUTUMN LIGHTS AND SHADES. 213 



wings; with one spring he is in the stream and 

 out again upon the bank, as quickly as he went into 

 it. He has captured what he went in for, but what 

 the prize is we are not able to tell, we can only see 

 it passing down his gullet. Then he proceeds to 

 shake himself in a most unbirdlike fashion, exactly 

 as a dog does when he comes out of the water; 

 the long-pointed breast and dorsal feathers fly out 

 from each side of him, so does the water. 



That the heron, like the rest of the waders, could 

 swim if necessary, I have known for many years ; 

 but that he would plunge from the bank for his 

 prey into water too deep for wading, I certainly 

 did not know before. In my eagerness to observe 

 every motion of his, hoping to be able to add to 

 my store another fresh trait in his character, I 

 moved slightly from the cramped position, where 

 I had been gradually sinking through a crust of 

 vegetation between the roots of two old thorns. 

 That slight rustle has made him suspicious, his 

 long neck is raised, and the bird looks exactly 

 like a pointed, decayed grey stake. The long light 

 stripe is wonderfully like bare decayed wood where 

 the bark has fallen from it. Then there is a change 



