4 88 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



herons are fiends. Not only have they the ability 

 to open their mouths very wide, but they can stretch 

 them horizontally, without using their fingers 

 in their cheeks as boys often do at school when the 

 teacher's back is turned. I fed my young heron on 

 clams, and sometimes it would swallow a jagged 

 piece of clam shell an inch or more in diameter, 

 then I would take my fingers and strip up its neck 

 until the clam shell came out of its mouth. There 

 is no doubt that I would have been successful in 

 rearing this bird, had not a little baby boy toddled 

 into the yard and wrung the bird's neck because, 

 he said, that "Bad bird make faces at Will." 



Prophets have no honor in their own country 



THE YOUXG BLACK CRESTED NIGHT HERON FROM 

 FLUSHING HERONRY 



