278 Wonders of the Bird World 



could never succeed in getting specimens when I wanted 

 them, I once employed some Gaucho boys, who had dogs 

 trained to hunt young Ducks, to try for this little Heron. 

 They procured several specimens, and said that without the 

 aid of their dogs they could never succeed in finding the 

 bird, though they always marked the exact spot where it 

 alighted. This I attributed to the slender figure it makes, 

 and to the colour of the plumage so closely assimilating to 

 that of the dead yellow and brown-spotted rushes always 

 found amongst the green ones ; but I did not know for 

 many years that the bird possessed a marvellous instinct 

 that made its peculiar conformation and imitative colour 

 far more advantageous than they could be of them- 

 selves." 



"One day in November 1870, when out shooting, I 

 noticed one of these Herons stealing off quickly through a 

 bed of rushes, thirty or forty yards from me ; he was a foot 

 or so above the ground, and went so rapidly, that he 

 appeared to glide through the rushes without touching 

 them, I fired, but afterwards ascertained that in my hurry 

 I missed my aim. The bird, however, disappeared at the 

 report ; and thinking 1 had killed him, I went to the spot. 

 It was an isolated bed of rushes I had seen him in ; the 

 mud below and for some distance round was quite bare and 

 hard, so that it would have been impossible for the bird to 

 escape without being perceived ; and yet, dead or alive, he 

 was not to be found. After vainly searching and re- 

 searching through the rushes for a quarter of an hour I 

 gave over the quest in great disgust and bewilderment, and 

 after reloading was just turning to go, when behold ! there 

 stood my Heron on a reed, no more than eight inches from 

 me, and on a level with my knees. He was perched, the 

 body erect, and the point of the tail touching the reed 

 grasped by its feet ; the long, slender, tapering neck was 

 held stiff, straight, and vertically ; and the head and beak, 



