102 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



XI. 



THE HERON'S HAUNT. 



MOST of the fields on the country side are now 

 laid up for hay, or down in tall haulm ing 

 corn ; and so I am driven from my accustomed 

 botanising grounds on the open and compelled 

 to take refuge in the wild bosky moorland 

 back of Hole Common. Here, on the edge 

 of the copse, the river widens to a consider- 

 able pool, and coming upon it softly through 

 the wood from behind the boggy, moss- 

 covered ground masking and muffling my 

 footfall I have surprised a great, graceful 

 ash-and-white heron, standing all unconscious 

 on the shallow bottom, in the very act of 

 angling for minnows. The heron is a some- 



